New York is sinking under the weight of glass skyscrapers, claims study

photo: hello_rayman, Pixabay

New York – The American city of New York is sinking at a rate of one to two millimeters per year, partly due to the weight of the glass skyscrapers in the city center. Some parts of the city are sinking at up to twice that rate. This trend exacerbates the impacts of rising sea levels and increases flood threats for New York residents. This is stated in a study published in the journal Earth's Future, which was reported on today by The Guardian.

Global sea levels are rising due to global warming, including the melting of glaciers. Since 1950, water levels along New York's coastline have risen by approximately 22 centimeters, scientists reported. The sinking of the city further escalates the risks posed by rising ocean levels. Major flooding from storms could become up to four times more frequent by the end of the century, due to a combination of rising sea levels and hurricanes that are becoming increasingly intense due to climate change, The Guardian cites the study.

Scientists calculated that the city’s buildings, which include the famous Empire State Building and Chrysler Building, weigh a total of 7.64 trillion kilograms. The Guardian compares this weight to that of 140 million elephants, with one elephant weighing about five tons. Scientists used building footprints, the weight of the materials used, and also took into account the usage of buildings and thus the number of people in them for their calculations.

This enormous weight presses down on a mixture of various materials found in New York's substrate. While many of the largest buildings are located on solid ground, such as slate, some are built on a mixture of sand and clay. This contributes to the sinking, which also naturally occurs along most of the eastern coast of the USA, as the substrate reacts to the retreat of massive glaciers after the last ice age, explains The Guardian.

"This is not something we should be immediately worried about, but this process is happening, which increases the risk of flooding during storms,” said geophysicist Tom Parsons from the US Geological Survey, who led the new research. "The softer the ground, the greater the pressure from the buildings. It was not a mistake to build such large buildings in New York, but we must keep in mind that every time you build something there, you compress the ground a little more,” Parsons added.