As humanity, we have built huge cities on earth, we have built structures of hundreds of thousands of tons. Have you ever thought that the city is at risk of sinking while seeing these structures? Scientists thought about this and revealed a stunning study about New York City, the city of skyscrapers.
Summary of the research: New York is sinking! Moreover, this sinking is due to the weight of skyscrapers built on city lands. Moreover, the sinking speed is not something to be taken lightly.
New York is sinking equally at the highest rate of movement of tectonic plates:
According to the results of the research, New York sinks 1-2 millimeters every year due to the weight of skyscrapers. This value is equivalent to the highest tectonic plate activity ever observed.
Although 1-2 millimeters may sound low at first, this is the average value for the city in general. Some parts of the city are sinking more than 1-2 millimeters per year.
In addition, the collapse of the city brings to mind a great risk: Floods and floods. After all, even Manhattan, the district of the rich, is only 1-2 meters above current sea level. In fact, one of the team, Tom Parsons, stated that the purpose of the research was to bring these risks to the agenda:
It’s all right, so how slowly did New York start to sink?
The team measured the weight of New York City on average. It was stated that New York City, which has more than one million buildings, has a total weight of 764 billion kilograms, that is, 764 million tons.