griggs
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California’s beaches grew some 500 acres in 40 years, says new study. Inside the haves and have-nots
Gary Griggs, a coastal erosion expert at U.C. Santa Cruz, described how a submarine canyon near Point Mugu has been slowly reconfigured (for reasons that aren’t clear) in a way that it effectively swallows up sand previously pushed farther down the coast by currents.
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Gary Griggs, Our Ocean Backyard | Trump’s climate change denial continues
Distinguished professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences Gary Griggs wrote an opinion article about the impacts of Trump Administration policies related to climate change and renewable energy.
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San Jose: $197 million project completed to improve flood protection along south San Francisco Bay shoreline
“We’ve built megacities of the world on coasts,” said Gary Griggs, a distinguished professor of earth sciences at UC Santa Cruz, in 2022 when the Alviso project broke ground. “We didn’t think of sea level rise 100 years ago, and now we are having to pay the price.”
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Caltrans to reopen Highway 1 at Regent’s Slide in Monterey County in March 2026
Professor Gary Griggs estimates that large slides on Highway 1 in Big Sur each cost some $50 million to fix, and proposes a toll for motorists to travel the stretch of highway. Caltrans estimates the total cost of repairing Regent’s Slide at $82 million.
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Sea Level Rise – Iconic Santa Cruz surf spots could slip away with erosion
Gary Griggs, a coastal geologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, discussed measures the City of Santa Cruz has taken to protect West Cliff Drive. But, he notes the likelihood that storms will continue to wreak havoc in the long term. “Two studies show that waves seem to be getting bigger, more energetic. Not…
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How did these class rings stay put for decades? Santa Cruz County beach mystery delights ocean expert
UC Santa Cruz coastal scientist Gary Griggs sees a scientific mystery in two lost-and-found class rings — including one buried for 44 years at Main Beach. Griggs says the stories challenge assumptions about coastal sand movement, raising new questions about how objects can remain so close to where they were lost despite decades of shifting…
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Big Waves and High Tides Can Be Just as Insidious as Hurricanes
“Large waves and high tides are already beating up the shoreline,” said Gary Griggs, a professor of earth and planetary sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz. A 2019 study by a UC Santa Cruz associate professor, Borja Reguero, and others used satellite data and modeling to suggest waves had grown 0.47% more powerful…
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Santa Cruz wharf collapse: Plans take shape for rebuilding as summer beach season begins
The wharf has more than 4,400 wooden pilings, made of Douglas Fir. They are pounded roughly 20 feet into the ocean bottom, and city crews replace several dozen each year. But piers come and go. There have been five others back to the mid-1800s in that area, noted Gary Griggs, a distinguished professor of Earth…
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The Pacific Coast Highway, a Mythic Route Always in Need of Repair
Gary Griggs, a professor of earth and planetary sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who has advised on a major repair to the route, said that he doubted the highway would ever again be open in its entirety for an extended period. “Attaining stability is impossible,” he said.
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As Coastline Erodes, One California City Considers ‘Retreat Now’
“We overall are much better at spending recovery money — that is, addressing issues after disasters — than we are at spending hazard mitigation,” said Michael Beck, director of the Center for Coastal Climate Resilience at the University of California, Santa Cruz. On the East Coast, the predominant strategy for protecting shorelines has been to…