New York City is sinking an average of one to two millimeters per year. This is stated in a study published in Earth’s Future Journal. Some boroughs are sinking twice as fast.
As a result, the level of the surrounding seawater rises and the risk of flooding increases. Since 1950, the water level surrounding New York City has already risen by 22 centimeters.
The researchers attribute the movement to the high concentration of skyscrapers. They calculated that the buildings have the same weight as 140 million elephants.
The enormous weight presses on the earth layers in the subsoil. The buildings are mainly set on solid foundations, but here and there the underlying layers consist of a mixture of sand and clay.
“The softer the subsoil, the higher the pressure,” said Tom Parsons, a geophysicist with the US Geological Survey. ‘It was not wrong to build such large buildings in New York, but we have to take into account that you push the ground away a little more every time a new building is added.’
2023-05-20 03:00:00
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