COASTAL PROTECTION FROM CLIMATE CHANGE

Nearly 26% of the Earth’s beaches will wash away by this century’s end. Fortunately, a mild zap of electricity can strengthen a marine coastline for generations, greatly reducing the threat of erosion due to climate change and rising sea levels. In laboratory experiments, a mild electrical current instantaneously changed the structure of marine sand, transforming it into a rock-like, immoveable solid. After treatment, the sand looks like a rock–still and solid, not granular and incohesive. The minerals themselves are much stronger than concrete, so the resulting sand could become as strong and solid as a sea wall.

news.northwestern.edu/stories/2024/august/fighting-coastal-erosion-with-electricity/#:~:text=By%20applying%20a%20mild%20electric,binders%20%E2%80%94%20a%20natural%20cement.%E2%80%9D