{"id":1541965,"date":"2025-06-16T10:55:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-16T14:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1541965"},"modified":"2025-06-16T10:55:00","modified_gmt":"2025-06-16T14:55:00","slug":"americas-cities-are-sinking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/americas-cities-are-sinking\/1541965\/","title":{"rendered":"America’s Cities Are Sinking…"},"content":{"rendered":"

America’s Cities Are Sinking…<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Across the U.S., major urban centers are experiencing significant land subsidence, a.k.a the sinking of land.<\/p>\n

This map, via Visual Capitalist’s Kayla Zhu,<\/a> visualizes the average vertical land movement within 28 of the largest U.S. cities from 2015 to 2021, measured in milimeters per year.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Data comes from a 2025 Nature Cities study titled \u201cLand subsidence risk to infrastructure in US metropolises<\/a>\u201d by Ohenhen, Zhai, Lucy, et al.<\/em><\/p>\n

Which U.S. City is Sinking the Most?<\/h2>\n

Below, we show the average vertical land movement within 28 of the largest U.S. cities from 2015 to 2021, measured in millimeters per year.<\/p>\n

City
\n\t\t\tState
\n\t\t\tVertical land movement (mm\/year)
\n\t\tHouston
\n\t\t\tTexas
\n\t\t\t-5.216
\n\t\tFort Worth
\n\t\t\tTexas
\n\t\t\t-4.366
\n\t\tDallas
\n\t\t\tTexas
\n\t\t\t-3.846
\n\t\tNew York
\n\t\t\tNew York
\n\t\t\t-2.430
\n\t\tChicago
\n\t\t\tIllinois
\n\t\t\t-2.323
\n\t\tColumbus
\n\t\t\tOhio
\n\t\t\t-1.934
\n\t\tSeattle
\n\t\t\tWashington
\n\t\t\t-1.847
\n\t\tDetroit
\n\t\t\tMichigan
\n\t\t\t-1.726
\n\t\tDenver
\n\t\t\tColorado
\n\t\t\t-1.714
\n\t\tCharlotte
\n\t\t\tNorth Carolina
\n\t\t\t-1.507
\n\t\tIndianapolis
\n\t\t\tIndiana
\n\t\t\t-1.423
\n\t\tWashington
\n\t\t\tDistrict of Columbia
\n\t\t\t-1.283
\n\t\tOklahoma City
\n\t\t\tOklahoma
\n\t\t\t-1.283
\n\t\tNashville
\n\t\t\tTennessee
\n\t\t\t-1.133
\n\t\tSan Antonio
\n\t\t\tTexas
\n\t\t\t-1.099
\n\t\tSan Diego
\n\t\t\tCalifornia
\n\t\t\t-1.076
\n\t\tPortland
\n\t\t\tOregon
\n\t\t\t-0.922
\n\t\tSan Francisco
\n\t\t\tCalifornia
\n\t\t\t-0.857
\n\t\tPhoenix
\n\t\t\tArizona
\n\t\t\t-0.846
\n\t\tLas Vegas
\n\t\t\tNevada
\n\t\t\t-0.841
\n\t\tAustin
\n\t\t\tTexas
\n\t\t\t-0.792
\n\t\tEl Paso
\n\t\t\tTexas
\n\t\t\t-0.754
\n\t\tPhiladelphia
\n\t\t\tPennsylvania
\n\t\t\t-0.735
\n\t\tLos Angeles
\n\t\t\tCalifornia
\n\t\t\t-0.729
\n\t\tBoston
\n\t\t\tMassachusetts
\n\t\t\t-0.478
\n\t\tMemphis
\n\t\t\tTennessee
\n\t\t\t0.006
\n\t\tSan Jose
\n\t\t\tCalifornia
\n\t\t\t0.219
\n\t\tJacksonville
\n\t\t\tFlorida
\n\t\t\t0.452<\/p>\n

Arecent study found that 25 of the 28 largest U.S. metropolitan areas are sinking each year, with cities in Texas experiencing some of the most severe land subsidence.<\/p>\n

Out of the cities studied, Houston was the city experiencing the most drastic subsidence, sinking 5.216 milimeters per year on average.<\/p>\n

This gradual sinking can worsen the impacts of sea-level rise, increase\u00a0flood risk<\/a>, and place additional stress on urban infrastructure, particularly in densely developed areas.<\/p>\n

The primary cause of this subsidence is groundwater extraction, though other contributing factors include the weight of urban development,\u00a0oil and gas<\/a>\u00a0extraction, and glacial isostatic adjustment\u2014a slow shift in the Earth\u2019s surface due to the long-term melting of ancient ice sheets.<\/p>\n

The study authors estimate that a total land area of 17,900\u2009sq. km. is sinking across these 28 cities.<\/p>\n

To learn about sinking cities, check out this\u00a0graphic<\/a>\u00a0by Planet Anomaly that visualizes the fastest-sinking coastal cities.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nMon, 06\/16\/2025 – 06:55<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/geopolitical\/americas-cities-are-sinking<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

America’s Cities Are Sinking… Across the U.S., major urban centers are experiencing significant land subsidence, a.k.a the sinking of land. This map, via Visual Capitalist’s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1541966,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1541965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbimBl-6t8p","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/06\/AmericasSinkingCitieswithbar-PU4FAP.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1541965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1541965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1541965\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1541966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1541965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1541965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1541965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}