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The ESA's web report discusses subsidence and (more rarely?) elevation of the earth's surface. It works especially well in cities, “down to millimetres. The technique works well with buildings because they better reflect the radar beam” They're studying the phenomenon worldwide.
The Sentinel-1 satellites have shown that the Millennium Tower skyscraper in the centre of San Francisco is sinking by a few centimetres a year. [...] Completed in 2009, the 58-storey Millennium Tower has recently been showing signs of sinking and tilting. Although the cause has not been pinpointed, it is believed that the movements are connected to the supporting piles not firmly resting on bedrock.
The Register succinctly summarizes the whole situation in this report:
It was expected to sink less than 10 inches during its lifetime. It's already slumped 16 inches, is listing a few inches to the northwest, and it could sink a further 31 inches. The European Space Agency today said its Sentinel-1 satellites, having scanned the city's surface, have found that the building is disappearing into the ground at a rate of a few centimetres a year.
The problem appears to be that it was not built all the way down to the bedrock, and instead is sitting on a concrete slab with piles that go down just 60 to 80-feet into an underlying layer of landfill. Lawsuits against the developers are, as expected, in flight.
It's alleged that the city's building inspectors knew back in 2009 that the tower was sinking but did nothing about it – not even alerting the public nor the apartments' owners. San Francisco magazine's Lauren Smiley and Joe Eskenazi have detailed this ongoing clusterfsck at length here; it's worth the read.
The Register article also provides a copy of the ESA's displacement map for San Francisco with the tower's location marked and provides a link to a higher-res map.
(Score: 3, Informative) by BsAtHome on Monday November 28 2016, @06:12PM
I knew they had little Italy there somewhere. I did not see little Pisa. Someone must have copied it.
Maybe the owners can send in the DMCA gurus to get an infringement settlement if direct compensation fails ;-)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 28 2016, @07:13PM
Considering Italy brought criminal charges against their scientists for not predicting an earthquake, I wouldn't put it past them to file DMCA infringement for copying the leaning tower of pizza.
(Score: 2) by edIII on Monday November 28 2016, @08:29PM
I doubt they have legal standing because the Leaning Tower of Pizza is a restaurant in Oakland, CA :)
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 28 2016, @08:28PM
Came here with the same idea. Change the name of the building to Pisa-West, set the area up as a tourist trap and it's all good...
Keep monitoring and when necessary inject suitable material under the slab to control the lean to a manageable amount. The engineers that monitor the original leaning tower should get the consulting job, with kickbacks to the city of Pisa for use of their name.