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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.]


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by DeathMonkey on Thursday July 30 2015, @06:54PM

    by DeathMonkey (1380) on Thursday July 30 2015, @06:54PM (#215975) Journal

    Like all scientific websites, you need to stop posting evidence that 30 years ago we came to a flawed conclusion...
     
    We came to a lot of flawed conclusions 30 years ago. Good thing science is a process that improves itself.

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