Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Thursday July 30 2015, @02:12AM   Printer-friendly
from the a-rising-tide-floats-all-boats;-not-so-good-for-property dept.

For more than half a century tide gauges have indicated that the Chesapeake Bay’s sea level has been rising twice as much as the global average and faster than anywhere else on the East Coast. Geologists have hypothesized that the land in this part of the country was once pushed up by a prehistoric ice sheet to the north and is now settling back down since the ice melted.

Now a new study by a group of geologists from the University of Vermont and the U.S. Geological Survey have confirmed that hypothesis through research using extensive drilling in the coastal plain of Maryland. The study concludes that, indeed, the land under the Chesapeake Bay is sinking quickly and the researchers project that Washington, D.C. could drop by six or more inches in the next century.

"This falling land will exacerbate the flooding that the nation's capital faces from rising ocean waters due to a warming climate and melting ice sheets," notes a press statement for the study, "accelerating the threat to the region's monuments, roads, wildlife refuges, and military installations."

The article contains no tips on how we can accelerate the subsidence.

The new research was conducted by a team of geologists from the University of Vermont, the U.S. Geological Survey, and other institutions. The results were presented online July 27 the journal GSA Today.

[Historical background data and information can be found at the U.S. National Geodetic Survey and the U.S. Geological Survey. - Ed.]


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 30 2015, @02:56AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 30 2015, @02:56AM (#215715)

    Washington was a swamp and will be again.

    Usually that was directed at all of the entitled Federal employees descending on Northern Virginia.

  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by mendax on Thursday July 30 2015, @05:15AM

    by mendax (2840) on Thursday July 30 2015, @05:15AM (#215746)

    Washington was a swamp and will be again.

    It has always been a swamp, a swamp of corruption and moral destitution. If only Mark Twain were still alive; he'd have the right words to properly describe DC today.

    --
    It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
  • (Score: 2) by Thexalon on Thursday July 30 2015, @01:45PM

    by Thexalon (636) on Thursday July 30 2015, @01:45PM (#215869)

    When we first came here, this was all swamp. Everyone said we were daft to build a capitol on a swamp, but we built it all the same, just to show them. It sank into the swamp. So we built a second one. That sank into the swamp. So we built a third. That burned down [wikipedia.org], fell over, then sank into the swamp. But the fourth one stayed up. And that's what we're going to get, lads, the strongest capitol in all of the world!

    --
    The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.