Researchers hope to rescue California coast by zapping sand with electricity

"We're talking about anywhere between about a foot of sea level rise to somewhere closer to two, three feet or even more by the end of the 21st century. And, you know, just ballpark estimates, what that means in terms of mean shoreline change rates, you know, we're talking between somewhere in the ballpark of, you know, 40 to 50 feet for the low ends upwards of well over 100 to 150 feet for the higher ends," said Oregon State professor Peter Ruggiero, Ph.D.

"In a nutshell, these work allows us to cement sand by using electrical energy," said Professor Alessandro Rotta Loria, Ph.D.

"By using electricity, we can actually convert these minerals, which are dissolved inside water into solid forms. So, we can basically transform them into solids, and we can transform it into cementing agents. So basically, we are really using the natural ingredients of seawater to cement soils," Rotta Loria said.

Read at ABC7 San Francisco