New York City Is Sinking Due To The Weight of Its Buildings, New Study Finds

The study reported that the Big Apple is reportedly sinking at an estimated 1 to 2 mm each year.

Credit: Getty Images
Credit: Getty Images

A recent geological study found that New York City is slowly sinking into surrounding bodies of water, thanks to the tremendous weight of its buildings.

The study, published in the journal Earth's Future, reported that the Big Apple is reportedly sinking at an estimated 1 to 2 mm each year. While that might not sound like a lot, it's sinking at about the same rate as Venice — a city famously known for doing that. Some parts of NYC are also “subsiding much faster” than 1 to 2 mm per year, the study said.

The weight of NYC’s buildings is reportedly a major factor in the subsidence of the land. Researchers calculated that the 1 million buildings on the island of Manhattan weigh approximately 1.68 trillion pounds. Much of what lies beneath NYC’s streets are sediments that are prone to shifting and settling, processes exacerbated by the enormous pressure of these buildings.

It's not just Manhattan at risk, either; geologists say Brooklyn and Queens are sinking, as well. Lead researcher Tom Parsons noted that, as a result of this subsidence, New York City faces increased risks of natural disasters such as flooding and hurricanes.

“New York faces significant challenges from flood hazard; the threat of sea level rise is 3 to 4 times higher than the global average along the Atlantic coast of North America,” researchers wrote. “A deeply concentrated population of 8.4 million people faces varying degrees of hazard from inundation in New York City.”

While the news may be alarming, Parsons offered reassurance. “It’s not something to panic about immediately but there’s this ongoing process that increases the risk of inundation from flooding,” he said, adding that the point of the study is to “raise awareness that every additional high-rise building constructed at coastal, river, or lakefront settings could contribute to future flood risk.”