New York City may soon sink under the sea predicts a new research

A new research study predicts that New York City may sink under the sea due to the weight of its skyscrapers and rising sea levels. The city is sinking at an average rate of 1-2 millimeters per year, with some areas sinking at an even faster rate.

Since 1950, the water surrounding New York City has risen by approximately 9 inches (22 centimeters), posing a looming threat to the city’s 8.4 million inhabitants. The study, published in the Earth’s Future journal, warns that the concentrated population in New York City faces varying degrees of danger from flooding.

The weight of New York City’s buildings, including iconic landmarks like the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building, is estimated to be 1.68 trillion pounds, equivalent to the weight of 140 million elephants. This immense weight exerts pressure on the mixture of materials beneath the city, causing it to sink gradually.

Although the largest buildings are constructed on solid bedrock, the underlying ground consists of a combination of sand and clays, contributing to the natural sinking process along the US east coast as glaciers retreat.

While the sinking process does not require immediate panic, it increases the city’s vulnerability to flooding. According to Tom Parsons, the lead author of the research and a geophysicist at the US Geological Survey, constructing large buildings in New York was not a mistake, but it is important to consider the compression of the ground with each new construction.

This sinking threat is not exclusive to New York City; coastal cities worldwide face similar risks. The authors of the study caution that as the climate crisis intensifies, many other coastal cities will share these dangers. The combination of tectonic and human-induced subsidence, rising sea levels, and increasing hurricane intensity poses an accelerating problem for coastal and riverfront regions.

Previous research has also highlighted sinking concerns in other coastal cities. For instance, a March 2022 study indicated that Mumbai, India’s financial capital with a population of approximately 20 million, is experiencing a gradual sinking at a rate of 2 mm per year. The study titled “Subsidence in Coastal Cities Throughout the World” emphasizes that Mumbai is not the only city affected by this phenomenon.