So, as it turns out, all the water we pull from the ground is in turn causing the ground to sink faster than once expected. A lot faster. Especially on the East Coast.
Did you know that the East Coast of the United States, which is home to more than a third of the US population, is sinking by several millimeters every year? Yep, it's true! This phenomenon is called "subsidence", and it's now clear the Eastern coastline is sinking and will be flooding faster than we expected.
Scientists have known that the coastline is sinking, but they're just starting to measure it accurately. Recent research published in the journal Nature Communications shows that the combination of subsidence and sea-level rise caused by global warming could cause flooding of up to 165 square miles of the coastline by 2100.
Subsidence just means, that by taking things out of the ground, like water and oil, the ground starts to sink. Common sense, don't you think?
So, what causes subsidence? The primary cause is over-extracting groundwater, which can cause the terrain to collapse. Other causes include extracting oil, sediment settling, and landfill. This means that as more people use more water, it will increase how fast the land is sinking. And with the East Coast being one of the fastest-growing areas in terms of population, this could become a real problem.
The researchers used data from a highly sensitive satellite to measure coastal deformation along 3,500 kilometers of the Atlantic coast between 2007 and 2020. They found particularly intense subsidence in agricultural areas where groundwater is extracted to feed crops.
The point is, it's not just rising oceans, it's things we take from the ground, like water, that causes coastal flooding, too. That's the big take away here.
Three millimeters may not seem like much, but the cumulative effect of subsidence, combined with climate erosion, over the years is what really matters.. Coastal infrastructure and ecosystems will be more vulnerable to flooding as the elevation drops, and wetlands that help mitigate sea-level rise along the East Coast are being destroyed for development. Wetlands absorb storm surges, keeping seawater from reaching farther inland. If saltwater is killing off biomass in coastal ecosystems, it's also killing off other natural elements that can absorb carbon, often referred to as "carbon sinks". This means more CO2 can remain in the atmosphere to cause more warming and drive up sea levels even further. So, more coastal erosion caused by the climate crisis. A double whammy!
Think about how much water we waste, and then have to pull water from the ground to make up for it. What a shame.
It's important to bring awareness to this missing component of subsidence because it makes the near-future vulnerability a lot worse than what one would expect from sea-level rise alone. High-resolution subsidence data like this is not yet taken into account for coastal hazard assessments. We need to start considering it if we want to prevent future flooding disasters.
So, we have rising oceans from climate change and sinking ground from subsidence. What a mess that's been created.
The sinking of the East Coast is a concerning issue that cannot be ignored. With the combination of subsidence and sea-level rise, it's not just a problem for the Eastern bay area coastline, but for the entire East Coast, which is home to millions of people. It's imperative that we take immediate action to reduce groundwater extraction and protect wetlands, as well as develop better strategies for coastal hazard assessments that take into account subsidence data. By working together and implementing solutions to address this issue, we can protect our coastal communities and ecosystems from the devastating effects of flooding and climate change.
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