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These 13 American cities flow

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2025-05-05T11: 23: 01Z

  • Cities around the world, including on the coasts of the United States and the Gulf, flow.
  • This phenomenon, called saggingcan worsen extreme floods and damage infrastructure.
  • From New York to Houston, these 13 cities lose the height each year.

Cities flow Through the United States, some to a few millimeters each year, while others lose up to six millimeters per year.

This phenomenon, called saggingis a “slow but widespread risk,” said Manoochehr Shirzaei, geophysicist of Virginia Tech who co-author has study Published in Nature in March which measured the subsidence in 32 coastal cities in the United States.

The sinking can come from the weight of skyscraper And infrastructure, or people who get metro water. Some remained from the last ice age.

The coastal cities of the world are already subject to catastrophic floods as sea level increases due to climate crisis. Factor in the sinking and vulnerability of the world to future triple coastal floods, according to a 2019 study.

In the United States, the rise in sea level combined with a subsidge could exhibit $ 109 billion in coastlines property to floods at high tide by 2050, according to the calculations of Shirzaei.

The good news is that there are relatively inexpensive solutions for subsidence, Shirzaei told Business Insider in an email.

“The point to remember key is that we still have enough time to manage this danger,” he said.

Here are the largest cities that flow the most, according to its new study, in geographic order from the northeast coast.

Boston, Massachusetts


Red and orange autumn trees park on the shore of a river with Boston roofs in the background

The esplanade, the Charles river and the horizon line in Boston.

AP photo / Michael Dwyer

Shirzaei and his co-authors found that there was a lot of variation of subsidence in Boston. When the sinking occurs at different rates like this, it can put additional pressure on the infrastructure.

For example, some areas of Boston flow approximately 1 millimeter per year, give or take. Others flow almost 4 millimeters a year – which translates into almost 4 centimeters per decade.

new York


The man wearing rolled jeans standing in the background water at the edge of a canal with Manhattan skyscrapers on the other side in the background

A man waded through the outing of the Morris canal while the sun sets on the lower Manhattan horizon line behind him.

AP photo / J. David Ake, file

The Big Apple loses approximately 1.5 millimeters in height each year.

The three airports in the New York region are also flowing, according to a study Shirzaei co-written in 2024. JFK flows approximately 1.7 mm per year, the Laguardia at 1.5 mm per year, and Newark airport travels 1.4 mm per year.

Laguardia, for its part, has already installed water pumps, beams, flood walls and flood doors. Previous estimates The Laguardia flooded the months by 2050 and entirely underwater within 2100 – and it is without subsidence.

Jersey City, New Jersey


pink and red shipping container wall behind a quay

The shipping containers are seated on the container ship a Manhattan in Port Jersey in Jersey City, New Jersey.

AP photo / Julia Demaoree Nikhinson

Just on the other side of the Hudson river, Jersey City corresponds to the rhythm of NYC about 1.5 millimeters per year.

To measure the sinking to such a granular level, Shirzaei and its co-authors have mapped the ground deformations using a satellite radar technique called Insar (abbreviation of interferometric synthetic opening radar).

Atlantic City, New Jersey


Sandy beach under a drop of 10-foot sand held by a black fabric with a dominant reflective casino building in the background

A beach replenishment project near the Ocean Casino Resort in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

AP photo / Wayne Parry

A little further south, Atlantic City makes her neighbors beat with a subsidge of around 2.8 millimeters per year.

Part of the subsidence of the East Coast is a remaining reaction of the disappearance of the Laurentine ice cap, which covered a large part of North America during the last Ice age. The bulk of the glacial cap made the lands exposed around its edges swell – and the region of the Atlantic environment has always settled since the retreat of the glacial cap.

Virginia Beach, Virginie


Ellen Ughetto stands crossed in her house filled with equipment to get on her house for hurricane floods.

Ellen Ughetto, a resident of Virginia Beach, is preparing her house in front of Hurricane Matthew in 2016.

Steve Helber / AP

Virginia Beach, Virginie, flows 2.2 millimeters per year. Meanwhile, elevation of sea level has become an increasing concern for the inhabitants.

In 2021, residents voted in favor of a program of $ 568 million to build infrastructure that protect against the increase in sea level PBS News.

Charleston, South Carolina


A car crosses a rue de Charleston flooded with palm trees and pastel houses.

A car crosses a flooded Charleston street.

Mic Smith / AP

Charleston is the most populous city in South Carolina and its city center is on a flanked peninsula of the Ashley river and the Cooper river. The overall city flows at a median pace of 2.2 millimeters per year, although in some regions, it is more dramatic at a rate of 6 millimeters per year.

Savannah, Georgia


Two men carry cardboard boxes in the knee water in a flooded street.

Ron Strauss firefighters, on the right, and Andrew Stevenson, on the left, transport food to Savannah residents blocked in 2024.

AP Photo / Stephen B. Morton

Savannah loses almost 2 millimeters a year, although some regions flow up to 5 millimeters per year.

More than 13,000 properties in Savannah are threatened with flooding over the next 30 years, according to the climate risk analysis group First Street. This represents more than 23% of all houses in the city.

Miami


Aerial view of a long island of Miami with high-rise buildings above the beaches next to the blue ocean water.

The skyscraper on the barriers arelands near Miami also flow.

Huberman collection / Universal Image Group via Getty Images

Last year, a study revealed that luxury skyscrapers slowly flowed on the barriers surrounding Miami, perhaps due to the vibrations of neighboring construction. Shirzaei noted that the continent was also flowing, about half a billimeter each year.

Mobile, Alabama


Above the city of the city of mobile at night with a river.

The city center of Mobile, in Alabama, along the mobile bay, an entrance to the Gulf of Mexico.

Getty images.

The mobile loses 1.87 millimeter per year. The City of the Gulf Coast knows part of the largest volume of rain in the United States, according to the City official websiteAnd encourages all residents to have survival kits in the event of a disaster, including canned food and pocket lamps, in the event of an emergency of flooding.

Biloxi, Mississippi


Man in checkered shirt with white hair holds a long wooden board on the outdoor frame of a three panel window on a porch of the house

Courtney Green installs support for Hurricane’s advice on the front door of her house in Biloxi, Mississippi, as a hurricane approach.

Steve Helber / AP Photo

Biloxe has the most radical criminal in all the American cities that the Shirzaei team has evaluated. Overall, Biloxi flows approximately 5.6 millimeters per year, with a lot of variation. Certain parts of the city can flow up to 10 millimeters per year.

New Orleans


A sign of neon saying "Bourbon heat" Flashing on Bourbon Street in the gray air in the middle of the descent.

The popular destination of the Bourbon Street party in New Orleans during a strong rain storm in 2023.

Adam McCullough / Shutterstock

New Orleans loses 1.3 millimeters per year. First Street reports that 99.6% of all the properties of the city risk flooding over the next 30 years.

Houston and Galveston, Texas


A woman stacks two lines of sandbags in front of a store door covered with posts for beauty products for women

A store owner stacks sandbags around the entrance while street floods approaches the building after Hurdeman Beryl in Galveston, Texas.

AP Photo / Michael Wyke

Shirzaei noted that Galveston, Texas, flows more than 4 millimeters a year, but interior parts of Houston has also been flowing for decades due to the extraction of groundwater.

Corpus Christi, Texas


A group of five will be held in front of a flooded highway.

A group of spectators meets on the roads of Corpus Christi during the flood of Hurricane Hanna in 2020.

Eric Gay / AP

Corpus Christi flows almost 3 millimeters a year. Some researchers believe that local oil and gas drilling has contributed to downturn, Reported local ABC OUTLET KIIV

“The extraction, generally, we believe that it initiates and activates the movement around the defects and these could initiate land sagging in certain regions,” the Outlet Mohamed Ahmed, geophysics professor in Texas A & M-Corpus Christi told The Outlet.

And the west coast?


San Francisco, California

People are sitting in a park in front of the historic houses of women painted in San Francisco.

Carmen Martínez Torrón / Getty Images

The Shirzaei team has not found many subsidence in the coastal cities of California, although the interior central valley of the State sinks due to the extraction of groundwater.

As for Oregon and Washington, the researchers simply do not yet have enough data to say what happens to the ground.