New York City is sinking under the weight of skyscrapers

New York is a sinking city apparently. A research team from the United States Geological survey and the University of Rhode Island found that the weight of the giant skyscrapers is causing the five boroughs to sink one-to-two millimeters annually.

As these gigantic buildings weigh heavily on the ground beneath them getting close to sea level, climate change is raising the ocean to meet them.

And although a few millimeters may not sound that bad, some parts of the city are sinking a lot faster.

Hurricanes Hit New York City

“It can be exacerbated with storm-forcing. Obviously, we’ve had some events in New York City with hurricanes coming in. That’s where a lot of inundation risk comes from,” said the study’s coauthor Tom Parsons from the US Geological Survey.

According to Parsons a sinking city like New York City and rising ocean tides is not a good combination. it says there is more risk when a hurricane happens and chances of massive floods are high.

“Not necessarily that the island will be completely submerged – at least not anytime soon. But when you have these extreme events, you can start seeing inundation.”

Parsons said they could be underestimating just how severe the risk is as the study did not take into account other features such as asphalt roads, concrete sidewalks, railways and the rest of New York’s infrastructure.

Awareness on New York City

The Big Apple was listed along with 98 other coastal cities around the world. In most of the cities they surveyed the land below is receding faster than sea levels are rising due to climate change.

The study also found that the situation is compounded by the fact that the draining and pumping of groundwater could essentially assist the pressure coming down from the buildings to further compact the dirt and rock below.

“The point of the paper is to raise awareness that every additional high-rise building constructed at coastal, river, or lakefront settings could contribute to future flood risk,” said Parsons.

Photo above is from Wikipedia