Recession rates for unconsolidated bluffs at 23 sites along Lake Michigan's southeast shore are compared with deep water wave energy probabilities to estimate the relative degradational importance of recurrent 5, 10, 20, 50, and 100‐year storms. Recession rates are based on measured bluff crest retreat while wave energies are calculated using standard water wave theory and data interpolated from a meteorologically based hindcast model. Correlation and regression tests suggest the following: (1) although wave energy is certainly a destructive factor, it explains less than half of the variation in bluff crest recession, supporting the interpretation that shorezone erosion here results from the interaction of numerous factors; and (2) over long time periods the total effect of more frequent moderate intensity storms is greater than that from rare, especially high energy events.
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