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A team of geologists discovered that New York City is slowly sinking due to the weight of its buildings. In a study published in Earth's Future journal, researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey and the University of Rhode Island said that the city, which is home to more than eight million people, is sinking at a rate of 1-2 millimeters per year.
The researchers estimated that the total weight of all 1,084,954 buildings in New York City and its outer boroughs is roughly 1.68 trillion pounds. That does not take into account the weight of all of the roads, subways, and train tracks or the weight of the residents and their belongings.
The researchers warned about the potential for increased flood risks as the city slowly sinks while sea levels continue to rise.
"As coastal cities grow globally, the combination of construction densification and sea level rise imply increasing inundation hazard. The point of the paper is to raise awareness that every additional high-rise building constructed at coastal, river, or lakefront settings could contribute to future flood risk, and that mitigation strategies may need to be included. The subsidence mapping concept helps to quantify the hazard and adds specificity to soil types and conditions. We present satellite data that show that the city is sinking 1–2 mm/tr with some areas subsiding much faster," the researchers explained in a summary of their paper.