New York is sinking, and some iconic places in the city are going down faster

The city of New York is sinking at an average of 1.6 millimetres per year, and a recent NASA report has shown that some places, including the LaGuardia Airport, Arthur Ashe Stadium and Coney Island, are sinking faster than the rest. New York, home to over 1 million buildings weighing nearly 1.7 trillion pounds, is going under its own weight and researchers with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Rutgers University have identified the key hotspots that are sinking faster, the New York Post reported. The runway of the LaGuardia Airport is going down at 3.7 millimetres and the home of the US Open, Arthur Ashe Stadium, is sinking 4.6 millimetres every year. Both of these fastest sinking areas were built on former landfills, which the researchers said explained their high rates of sinking. While the rate at which the US’s biggest city is sinking may seem slow, scientists warn that combined with the rising sea level could pose serious problems during powerful storms like Sandy. “Protecting coastal populations and assets from coastal flooding is an ongoing challenge for New York City,” the researchers wrote. “The combined effect of natural sea level variations and destructive storms is being increasingly exacerbated by ongoing sea level rise.” The Interstate 78 highway, which connects Manhattan to New Jersey, was also sinking at almost twice the average. Highway 440, which connects Staten Island to Garden State, was also going down at the same rate. The other hotspots included Coney Island, the southern half of Governors Island, Midland and South Beach in Staten Island, and Arverne by the Sea, a coastal neighbourhood in southern Queens. Brett Buzzang, the lead author of the report, hoped that the research could help the city authorities come up with a plan to combat disasters that may hit the city as a result of sinking. “There’s more damage that can be done with higher sea levels and lower land together,” Buzzanga told the Washington Post. “It’s kind of adding to the background state on which these storms act. There’s more water to slosh around.” Earlier this year the United States Geological Survey found New York was slowly sinking due to its own weight.