--- title: "NYC Appears to Be Sinking Because Its Skyscrapers Are So Heavy" description: "Bad news for New York: the Big Apple appears to be sinking a little bit each year under the weight of its iconic skyscrapers." date: "2023-05-18" modified: "2023-05-18" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/nyc-skyscrapers-sinking" categories: - "Science & Energy" tags: - "geology" - "natural disasters" - "new york city" - "the digest" --- # NYC Appears to Be Sinking Because Its Skyscrapers Are So Heavy ![Bad news for New York: the Big Apple appears to be sinking a little bit each year under the weight of its iconic skyscrapers.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* ## Sinking Feeling Bad news for New Yorkers: the Big Apple appears to be sinking a little deeper into the Earth each year, under the unfathomable weight of its iconic skyscrapers. A new study [published in the journal *Earth's Future*]() finds that the geological process of subsidence, in which sediments shift and settle, seems to be occurring rapidly in specific parts of NYC, including the [just-at-sea-level area of Lower Manhattan]() and parts of Brooklyn and Queens as well. Overall, wrote researchers from the United States Geological Survey and the University of Rhode Island, New York is sinking at one to two millimeters per year— though in those particular problem areas, the situation seems to be worse. As with everything else, this sinking doesn't happen in a vacuum. The further New York descends, the more vulnerable it becomes to climate change-related catastrophes, too, with 2012's Hurricane Sandy serving as a cautionary tale. "New York faces significant challenges from flood hazard; the threat of sea level rise is 3 to 4 times higher than the global average along the Atlantic coast of North America," the team behind the paper wrote. "A deeply concentrated population of 8.4 million people faces varying degrees of hazard from inundation in New York City." ## Lower East Side NYC isn't alone among coastal cities that are sinking more and more each year. In 2021, one of the same researchers from the US Geological Survey found [similar results in San Francisco](). "New York is emblematic of growing coastal cities all over the world that are observed to be subsiding," the new paper notes, "meaning there is a shared global challenge of mitigation against a growing inundation hazard." As it often goes with these sorts of alarm-raising studies, Parsons and his team don't really give much in the way of solutions for the problem, even as they note that more and more people move to coastal urban regions each year. "Globally," the paper concludes, "populations who live in subsiding cities will face rising seas at rates up to four times faster than stable regions." So yeah, New York is sinking a bit more each year, which sucks for the many millions of people who call it home, not to mention the millions more [projected to move to it]() in the coming years. **More on NYC:** [*NYC's Greenery Eats Up All the CO2 From Its Cars, Trucks and Buses "And Then Some"*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()