NEW YORK — New York City may be sinking by a couple millimeters every year due to the weight of its skyscrapers.
Researchers claim structures like the 365,000-ton Empire State Building, along with its towering brethren like One World Trade Center and the Chrysler Building, could contribute to the city slowly being swallowed by surrounding waterways, according to the Earth’s Future science journal.
“New York City faces accelerating inundation risk from sea level rise, subsidence, and increasing storm intensity from natural and anthropogenic causes,” researchers said.
And some parts of town may be plunging faster than others.
“Development and filling in of tributaries have cut off nearly all the sediment supply to the East and Harlem Rivers, which in turn has stopped deposition in New York Harbor, increasing the danger of New York City flooding from Nor’easters and hurricanes,” the Earth’s Future report added.
Pumping and urban drainage systems are also blamed for rising sea levels.
U.S. Geological Survey geophysicist Tom Parsons, who worked on the study, said the situation doesn’t merit panic, according to The Guardian, which reported on his team’s findings Friday.
“The softer the soil, the more compression there is from the buildings,” Parsons said. “It wasn’t a mistake to build such large buildings in New York, but we’ve just got to keep in mind every time you build something there, you push down the ground a little bit more.”
Parsons warned all coastal cities should be mindful of what’s beneath the earth while building into the clouds.
“If you get repeated exposure to seawater, you can corrode steel and destabilize buildings, which you clearly don’t want,” he said.
The United Nations forecast in its 2022 World Cities Report that “the proportion of people living in urban areas is projected to grow to 68% by 2050” — and more people typically leads to more construction.
“Major cities on every continent except Antarctica are observed to be subsiding, and the issue may be worsened as populations grow,” Parsons’ report said.
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