Posted on 08/01/2015 12:48:19 PM PDT by VinL
All the political gridlock in Congress and name-calling during election season may not matter as much when Washington, D.C. sinks into the ocean.
According to new research conducted by geologists at the University of Vermont and the U.S. Geological Survey, the land in the Chesapeake Bay region, including the nation’s capital, is sinking rapidly. The sea level in the Chesapeake is rising at twice the global average and faster than anywhere else on the East Coast, the researchers say, which means D.C. will sink 6 or more inches in the next 100 years.
The sinking is caused by melting ice sheets which caused underlying rock to bulge upward. As the ice melts, the rock bulge drops. Scientists say this will cause more flooding in the region, which is already getting worse from global warming.
“Right now is the time to start making preparations,” said Ben DeJong, lead author of the study, in a University of Vermont press release. “Six extra inches of water really matters in this part of the world.”
(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...
I know! I know! Teacher, call on me! please?!?
It’s sinking under the weight of all the Money they are confiscating from the Taxpayers in the Country.
Well, I wasn’t thinking that so much as that the idiot who wrote this got it reversed. A great thickness of ice will cause the underlying rock to sink, not bulge, because of the weight of the ice. Then, after the ice melts, the rock rises again. It’s called isostatic rebound. Whatever is causing the Washington area to subside, it’s not ice melting.
Tess Berensen, you ignorant slut!
tis not cursing, but a heartfelt homage to the classic SNL skit.
Should the Nation's Capitol continue to sink to even greater depths because of soil conditions, the Potomac river will claim it long before rising seas.
So sad to see Clare Booth Luce's weekly forced into such penury that Time can no longer afford the cost of Google for you.
Oh wait....Google is free.
Nice ‘feel good’ post... thanks
So the water around DC is higher than the water in other places? That’s implied... but not possible.
It’s been sinking pretty low for a long time, hope the last sinking will be sooner rather than later.
DC is one of the world’s biggest producers of hot air.
Yes, Johnny?
What do you call 537 elected officials, 9 lifetime appointees and several hundred thousand bureaucrats at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean?
A VERY good start!
Never gets old.
Land subsiding, or selective gravity causing sea to rise only in the bay?
I call BS! This part of the east coast is a submergent coast...typified by long shore bars, low-lying coastal islands, estuaries and coastal swamps.
The west coast is an emergent coast typified by cliffs, tombolos, sea stacks etc. Has very little to do with sea level changes.
Nope. Nice touch there, freshening it up. Though, maybe we should leave Cruz, Lee and a couple of others on dry land.
Well at least the geniuses that we elect will now have a hill to water ski on.
I don’t understand either. I have no idea what he means by “the rock bulge drops.”
Isostatic rebound does occur, but the last ice sheet never reached the DC area. Just because some areas rise doesn’t mean that others will drop.
As DC was built on a swamp, I could see subsidence being a problem, but I can’t see why the entire Chesapeake Bay area would be sinking.
Yes, I didn’t mention what you do, that the ice sheets were never in that area to begin with. I don’t really know enough about plate tectonics in that part of the world to guess why Washington might be sinking, but I’m sure that global warming isn’t the reason, however indirectly.
You’re thinking too much...stop it!!! :)
Yes, how on earth can it be limited to just DC!!?? ...because land has never risen or fallen! /s
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