Map showing changes in shoreline of Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, during the past 200 years

The history of the coast of Martha's Vineyard is mostly a story of erosion, although locally the shore has alternately advanced and retreated.  Erosion of the island's shores has, in fact, been going on for thousands of years, and although we know little about the erosion of distant times, it is quite possible that the rate of erosion was about the same as now; about 16 acreas are lost to the sea every year, about 13 of which are lost on the south shore alone.