The Mile High City is sinking by two millimeters a year, which could be a “slow-moving hazard” for critical infrastructure, warns a Virginia Tech University study published on Thursday, May 8, in the scientific journal Nature Cities.
“The slow and gradual sinking of Earth’s surface — land subsidence — is a present and growing hazard with costly environmental, social and economic impacts on urban centers,” according to the study. “Even modest rates of urban subsidence can profoundly impact the structural integrity of buildings, roads, bridges and dams.”
The study relied on data from radars and satellite images captured between 2015 and 2021 to measure gradual sinking in the 28 of the country’s most populated as of 2020. Researchers measured the upward and downward motion of land within each city’s boundaries, finding that, in most places, at least half of the land was slowly pressing downward because of human activity and lingering affects of ancient glaciers…