Accurate, Focused Research on Law, Technology and Knowledge Discovery Since 2002

The East Coast Is Sinking

The New York Times interactive [read free] – “New satellite-based research reveals how land along the coast is slumping into the ocean, compounding the danger from global sea level rise. A major culprit: overpumping of groundwater. The most vulnerable areas of Boston have been sinking up to 3.8 centimeters per decade, which adds up to nearly 10 centimeters by 2050, based on the analysis of satellite data from 2007 to 2020. The new research from Virginia Tech and the U.S. Geological Survey used satellite data to show the mounting threats to coastal communities. Nearly 40 percent of Americans live along coasts, where aging buildings, roads and rails face structural damage from floods. “You have a hazard that is becoming worse every day with sea level rise,” said lead author Leonard Ohenhen, Ph.D. candidate at Virginia Tech. The global average sea level has been rising around 3.3 millimeters per year since the early 1990s, according to satellite readings from NASA. And based on longer records from tide gauges, we know that rate is accelerating, said Kenneth Miller, a professor of earth and planetary sciences at Rutgers University. Local subsidence, or sinking land, makes the threat of sea level rise worse in some places than others…”

Sorry, comments are closed for this post.