Close Menu
Technology Mag

    Subscribe to Updates

    Get the latest creative news from FooBar about art, design and business.

    What's Hot

    The unbearable sameness of Liquid Glass

    September 15, 2025

    OpenAI Ramps Up Robotics Work in Race Toward AGI

    September 15, 2025

    Facebook gave our data to Cambridge Analytica and all I got was this $38.36

    September 15, 2025
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
    Subscribe
    Technology Mag
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram YouTube
    • Home
    • News
    • Business
    • Games
    • Gear
    • Reviews
    • Science
    • Security
    • Trending
    • Press Release
    Technology Mag
    Home » Cities Aren’t Prepared for a Crucial Part of Sea-Level Rise: They’re Also Sinking
    Science

    Cities Aren’t Prepared for a Crucial Part of Sea-Level Rise: They’re Also Sinking

    News RoomBy News RoomMarch 11, 20243 Mins Read
    Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Reddit WhatsApp Email

    Fighting off rising seas without reducing humanity’s carbon emissions is like trying to drain a bathtub without turning off the tap. But increasingly, scientists are sounding the alarm on yet another problem compounding the crisis for coastal cities: Their land is also sinking, a phenomenon known as subsidence. The metaphorical tap is still on—as rapid warming turns more and more polar ice into ocean water—and at the same time the tub is sinking into the floor.

    An alarming new study in the journal Nature shows how bad the problem could get in 32 coastal cities in the United States. Previous projections have studied geocentric sea-level rise, or how much the ocean is coming up along a given coastline. This new research considers relative sea-level rise, which also includes the vertical motion of the land. That’s possible thanks to new data from satellites that can measure elevation changes on very fine scales along coastlines.

    With that subsidence in mind, the study finds that those coastal areas in the US could see 500 to 700 square miles of additional land flooded by 2050, impacting an additional 176,000 to 518,000 people and causing up to $100 billion of further property damage. That’s on top of baseline estimates of the damage so far up to 2020, which has affected 530 to 790 square miles and 525,000 to 634,000 people, and cost between $100 billion and $123 billion.

    Overall, the study finds that 24 of the 32 coastal cities studied are subsiding by more than 2 millimeters a year. (One millimeter equals 0.04 inches.) “The combination of both the land sinking and the sea rising leads to this compounding effect of exposure for people,” says the study’s lead author, Leonard Ohenhen, an environmental security expert at Virginia Tech. “When you combine both, you have an even greater hazard.”

    The issue is that cities have been preparing for projections of geocentric sea-level rise, for instance with sea walls. Through no fault of their own—given the infancy of satellite subsidence monitoring—they’ve been missing half the problem. “All the adaptation strategies at the moment that we have in place are based on rising sea levels,” says Manoochehr Shirzaei, an environmental security expert at Virginia Tech and a coauthor of the paper. “It means that the majority—if not all—of those adaptation strategies are overestimating the time that we have for those extreme consequences of sea-level rise. Instead of having 40 years to prepare, in some cases we have only 10.”

    Subsidence can happen naturally, for instance when loose sediments settle over time, or because of human activity, such as when cities extract too much groundwater and their aquifers collapse like empty water bottles. In extreme cases, this can result in dozens of feet of subsidence. The sheer weight of coastal cities like New York is also pushing down on the ground, leading to further sinking.

    Courtesy of Leonard Ohenhen, Virginia Tech

    Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn WhatsApp Reddit Email
    Previous ArticleSam Altman Back on OpenAI’s Board After He Is Cleared by Investigation
    Next Article Samsung’s new midrange Galaxy A55 arrives with improved security and materials

    Related Posts

    US Taxpayers Will Pay Billions in New Fossil Fuel Subsidies Thanks to the Big Beautiful Bill

    September 15, 2025

    The New Math of Quantum Cryptography

    September 15, 2025

    ‘People Are So Proud of This’: How River and Lake Water Is Cooling Buildings

    September 15, 2025

    Researchers Create 3D-Printed Artificial Skin That Allows Blood Circulation

    September 15, 2025

    Falcon 9 Milestones Vindicate SpaceX’s ‘Dumb’ Approach to Reuse

    September 14, 2025

    Why Former NFL All-Pros Are Turning to Psychedelics

    September 13, 2025
    Our Picks

    OpenAI Ramps Up Robotics Work in Race Toward AGI

    September 15, 2025

    Facebook gave our data to Cambridge Analytica and all I got was this $38.36

    September 15, 2025

    The Supreme Court is Google’s last hope to avoid an Epic reckoning in October

    September 15, 2025

    Meta leaks its new smart glasses with a display

    September 15, 2025
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Pinterest
    • Instagram
    • YouTube
    • Vimeo
    Don't Miss
    Games

    ‘Hades II’ Is Coming to Nintendo Switch This Month

    By News RoomSeptember 15, 2025

    Nintendo’s Switch and Switch 2 release calendars are bulking up. During a packed Nintendo Direct…

    Google thinks it can have AI summaries and a healthy web, too

    September 15, 2025

    A New Platform Offers Privacy Tools to Millions of Public Servants

    September 15, 2025

    How China’s Propaganda and Surveillance Systems Really Operate

    September 15, 2025
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram Pinterest
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of use
    • Advertise
    • Contact
    © 2025 Technology Mag. All Rights Reserved.

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.