Cities are so heavy that they are sinking under their own weight
Recommended for Secondary Grades
Cities on Earth
A while ago, we read that human-made things on Earth are now heavier than all of Earth’s living biomass.
A new study says that cities today have become so heavy that they are sinking under the weight of their own development.
In the study, Tom Parsons, a scientist at the United States Geological Survey (USGS) agency, found the city of San Francisco (US) may have sunk up to 80 millimetres in its history.
It may even be a lot more than that, as his calculations do not include roads and buildings, people or cars.
The city of San Francisco could weigh as much as 1.6 trillion kilograms. This is enough to literally bend the rocky outermost shell of Earth (known as the lithosphere). This kind of weight creates a lot of stress on the earth.
The same sort of sinking is likely possible in other cities of the world, although it depends from region to region.
This news has come as cities on the coastlines are already under the threat of rising sea levels due to global warming. As more and more people are moving to live in cities near the sea today, this could make such cities sink even further.
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