USA threatened by more frequent flooding Researchers show that the East Coast of the USA is slowly sinking into the sea Date: September 11, 2017 Science Daily Source: University of Bonn Summary: The East Coast of the United States is threatened by more frequent flooding in the future. According to this study, the states of Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina are most at risk. Their coastal regions are being immersed by up to three millimeters per year -- among other things, due to human intervention. Cities such as Miami on the East Coast of the USA are being affected by flooding more and more frequently. The causes are often not hurricanes with devastating rainfall such as Katrina, or the recent hurricanes Harvey or Irma. On the contrary: flooding even occurs on sunny, relatively calm days. It causes damage to houses and roads and disrupts traffic, yet does not cost any people their lives. It is thus also known as 'nuisance flooding'.
And this nuisance is set to occur much more frequently in the future. At least researchers from the Universities of Bonn, South Florida, and Rhode Island are convinced of this. The international team evaluated data from the East Coast of America, including GPS and satellite measurements. These show that large parts of the coastal region are slowly yet steadily sinking into the Atlantic Ocean. "There are primarily two reasons for this phenomenon," explains Makan A. Karegar from the University of South Florida, currently a guest researcher at the Institute of Geodesy and Geoinformation at the University of Bonn. "During the last ice age around 20,000 years ago, large parts of Canada were covered by an ice sheet. This tremendous mass pressed down on the continent." Some areas of Earth's mantle were thus pressed sideways under the ice, causing the coastal regions that were free of ice to be raised. "When the ice sheet then melted, this process was reversed," explains Karegar. "The East Coast has thus been sinking back down for the last few thousand years."
1 Comment
3/1/2018 07:54:11 am
With this being said, I would like to say that people living in USA should be more careful and attentive with what might happen. I would like to thank researchers like you for being able to share important information just like the one you have posted here. You will be able to help a lot of people by telling them the things that might really happen in the future. I just hope that people will find this very serious so that they will prepare themselves. I will definitely tell this to my loved ones at USA.
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