The study suggests that New York is sinking under its own weight

According to a recent study, the city of New York It is gradually sinking due to the huge buildings that characterize its urban landscape.

Experts warn that the city is becoming increasingly vulnerable to floods and rising sea levels, the consequences of climate change.

What does the study indicate?

In 2020, the population of New York City was 8.8 million, making it the most populous city in the United States. Of course, to accommodate this huge population and its activities, the construction of large buildings is essential.

The research, published in the journal Earth’s Future, indicates that the city’s weight may be stressing the soil on which it is built, contributing to rising sea levels in the area and making flooding more dangerous.

Researchers sought to understand how a city’s weight might affect sea level rise in its region, and New York, because of its size, was the ideal location for this investigation.

The research team assessed how the city’s extensive infrastructure affects soil subsidence, a phenomenon known as subsidence, which can be caused by natural processes, such as erosion, or by human activities, such as mining.

The researchers’ first step was to determine the city’s weight, which, for the purposes of this study, includes all 1,084,954 buildings distributed over its five districts.

They then created a grid model of the city and analyzed the “footprint” and height of each building from a database. Using construction standards, they were able to calculate the weight in each lattice square.

Geologists calculate that the structures in New York exert a combined pressure of 764 billion kilograms on the Earth.

According to the study, the US financial position is sinking at a rate of between 1 and 2 millimeters per year. Some sites, built on more fragile or grounded terrain, are sinking up to 4.5 mm per year.

However, Tom Parsons, the study’s principal investigator, argues that the solution is not to build fewer buildings. According to him, the main reason for the sinking of New York is tectonic action.

Projections indicate that this drowning will intensify the effects of sea level rise resulting from global warming and the melting of the polar ice caps around the world.