The roles of tectonic subduction and the Earth's changing climate in the morphologic evolution of the Oregon coast

The Oregon coast is characterized by extreme events and processes, ranging from occurrences of subduction earthquakes that every few hundred years rock the coast and produce land-elevation changes on the order of 1 to 2 m, to major winter storms that generate deep-water significant wave heights reaching 14 m. The Earth's changing climate has produced a progressive increase in wave heights spanning at least the past 25 years, while occurrences of Los Nin/spl tilde/os further enhance the annual wave heights as well as elevating winter tides by more than 0.5 m. The decadal to millennial evolution of the Oregon coast is the product of the interplay of these tectonic and climate-controlled processes.