(ORDO NEWS) — The researchers said that cities are so heavy that it triggers a gradual subsidence. As a result, the risk of flooding increases significantly.
Experts found that big cities should worry not only about the fact that the sea level may rise. The situation may become even more critical due to the huge weight of megacities, which leads to a gradual subsidence of the soil.
Geophysicist Tom Parsons conducted a study using the city of San Francisco as an example. Over time, the metropolis can drop by about 80 millimeters. This city may be partially flooded by 2050 due to rising sea levels, and such subsidence of the soil further exacerbates the situation.
The specialist has calculated the approximate weight of the metropolis, which was about 1.6 trillion kg. This weight is quite enough to provoke the curvature of the part of the lithosphere where the metropolis is located. In addition, this weight can cause changes in the level of faults in certain rocks that make up the surface of our planet.
It should be noted that the calculations did not take into account the weight of people, cars and additional infrastructure. Therefore, the figure of 80 mm is only a preliminary estimate. In fact, the subsidence can be much larger.
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