Coastal land is dropping, known as subsidence. That could expose hundreds of thousands of additional Americans to inundation by 2050.
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.
The sinking is especially dangerous where it’s happening at different rates in adjacent points, known as differential subsidence. If a road, airport, or levee is sinking at 5 millimeters a year along its whole stretch, that might not be a huge deal—its elevation is just dropping. But if the sinking is happening at 5 millimeters at one end and 1 millimeter at the other, that difference can destabilize the infrastructure. Here’s another way of looking at the East Coast, from the new paper.
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