Study reveals NYC sinking due to weight of skyscrapers.
New York City is sinking by 1-2 millimeters annually due to subsidence caused by the weight of its buildings, according to a recent study. The cumulative mass of the city's buildings was found to be around 1.68 trillion pounds, and some areas were found to have significantly greater subsidence rates. The study highlights the shared global challenge of mitigating the growing inundation hazard faced by many coastal cities around the world due to sea level rise and increasing urbanization. The Army Corps of Engineers is proposing a $52B construction of coastal seawalls to mitigate the looming circumstances.