Up to 2 millimeters per year. This is the rate at which New York City is sinking, study finds which has just been published in the scientific journal Earth’s Future and relayed by the press. “New York is sinking in part because of the extraordinary weight of its towering buildings, which aggravate the threat of flooding posed by rising waters on the metropolis”, explain The Guardian.
“The weight of New York City’s skyscrapers is sinking the Big Apple” at a rate of 1 to 2 millimeters per year, summarizes the New York Post. “While this may seem insignificant to untrained eyes, continues the American tabloid, This slow decline makes New York City extremely vulnerable to natural disasters, according to the study’s lead author, geophysicist Tom Parsons.
The weight of the frame? 764 million tons
The team of researchers specializing in “sea level rise in coastal cities” estimates the weight of construction in New York at 764 million tons: “That’s a lot of downward pressure”, translates technology magazine Popular Mechanics.
The study confronts this mass of buildings with the pressure they exert “on the mixture of clay, sand and silt that makes up most of the subsoil”, detailed Architectural Digest. The subsidence rate is higher south of Manhattan and in parts of Brooklyn and Queens, the modeling finds. “Much of lower Manhattan is currently only a meter or two above sea level, which risks compounding the effects of climate change,” notes the design magazine.
However, New York is not unique. She “is emblematic of expanding coastal cities around the world that are witnessing subsidence”write the authors of the study, and it is “an international challenge to reduce this growing flood risk”.
2023-05-19 07:00:00
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