New York City is slowly sinking. With the weight of its tall buildings, streets and people, the city is sinking at an average rate of 1 to 2 millimeters each year, a new study says. The sinking is called “subsidence.” That natural process happens everywhere as ground is compressed. But the study published in the publication Earth's Future in May sought to estimate how the huge weight of the city itself is hurrying things along. More than 1 million buildings are spread across the city’s five boroughs. The r...
New York City is slowly sinking. With the weight of its tall buildings, streets and people, the city is sinking at an average rate of 1 to 2 millimeters each year, a new study says. The sinking is called “subsidence.” That natural process happens everywhere as ground is compressed. But the study published in the publication Earth's Future in May sought to estimate how the huge weight of the city itself is hurrying things along. More than 1 million buildings are spread across the city’s five boroughs. The research team found that all those structures add up to about 1.5 trillion metric tons of concrete, metal and glass. That is equal to the mass of 4,700 Empire State buildings pressing down on the Earth.
纽约市正在慢慢下沉。一项新的研究表明，由于高楼、街道和人群的重量，这座城市每年平均下沉 1 至 2 毫米。下沉称为“沉降”。随着地面被压缩，这种自然过程无处不在。但 5 月份发表在《地球的未来》杂志上的这项研究试图估计这座城市本身的巨大重量是如何推动事情发展的。超过 100 万座建筑物分布在该市的五个行政区。研究小组发现，所有这些结构加起来约有 1.5 万亿公吨的混凝土、金属和玻璃。这相当于 4,700 座帝国大厦压在地球上的质量。
The rate of compression is different throughout the city. Midtown Manhattan's tall buildings, or skyscrapers, are largely built on rock, which compresses very little. But some parts of Brooklyn, Queens and downtown Manhattan are on looser soil and sinking faster, the study said. While the process is slow, parts of the city will eventually be under water, said Tom Parsons. He is the lead researcher of the U.S. Geological Survey. Making the problem worse is rising sea level. “The ground is going down, and the water’s coming up. At some point, those two levels will meet,” said Parsons.
整个城市的压缩率是不同的。曼哈顿中城的高层建筑或摩天大楼主要建在岩石上，岩石的压缩力很小。但该研究称，布鲁克林、皇后区和曼哈顿市中心的部分地区土壤松散，下沉速度更快。汤姆帕森斯说，虽然这个过程很缓慢，但城市的部分地区最终将被淹没。他是美国地质调查局的首席研究员。使问题更糟的是海平面上升。 “地面在下沉，水在上涨。在某个时候，这两个级别会相遇，”帕森斯说。
Parsons and his team of researchers reached their conclusions using satellite imaging, data modeling and mathematical calculations. It will take hundreds of years before New York becomes Venice. The city in Italy is famously sinking into the Adriatic Sea. But parts of New York are more at risk. Parsons said that Manhattan is at risk because of the borough’s large weight. “The average elevation in the southern part of the island is only 1 or 2 meters above sea level — it is very close to the waterline, and so it is a deep concern.” The ocean is rising at a similar rate that the land is sinking. So the Earth's changing climate could speed up the process for parts of the city to go under water.
帕森斯和他的研究团队通过卫星成像、数据建模和数学计算得出了他们的结论。纽约成为威尼斯需要数百年的时间。意大利的这座城市以沉入亚得里亚海而闻名。但纽约部分地区面临的风险更大。帕森斯表示，曼哈顿正处于危险之中，因为该行政区的权重很大。 “岛南部平均海拔只有1、2米，离吃水线很近，令人深感忧虑。”海洋上升的速度与陆地下沉的速度相似。因此，地球不断变化的气候可能会加速城市部分地区被淹没的过程。
“It doesn’t mean that we should stop building buildings…,” Parsons said. "The purpose was to point this out in advance before it becomes a bigger problem.” Already, New York City is at risk of flooding because of large storms. Storms like Sandy in 2012 caused the ocean to expand inland and flooded neighborhoods after a lot of rain. Andrew Kruczkiewicz is a senior researcher at Columbia University’s Climate School, who was not involved in the research. Kruczkiewicz said the study’s findings could help inform policy makers as they plan ways to slow the rising seas. “We can’t sit around and wait..,” he added.
“这并不意味着我们应该停止建造建筑物……”帕森斯说。 “目的是在它成为一个更大的问题之前提前指出这一点。”由于大风暴，纽约市已经面临洪水泛滥的风险。像 2012 年的桑迪这样的风暴导致海洋向内陆扩张，并在大量降雨后淹没了社区。Andrew Kruczkiewicz 是哥伦比亚大学气候学院的高级研究员，他不是Kruczkiewicz 说，这项研究的结果可以帮助政策制定者规划减缓海平面上升的方法。“我们不能坐等……”他补充道。
New York City is not the only place sinking. San Francisco, California, is also at risk because of pressure on the ground and the area’s active earthquakes. In Indonesia, the government is preparing for a move from Jakarta, which is sinking into the Java Sea. The government is building a new capital being constructed on the higher ground of an entirely different island.
纽约市并不是唯一下沉的地方。由于地面压力和该地区的活跃地震，加利福尼亚州旧金山也处于危险之中。在印度尼西亚，政府正准备从正在沉入爪哇海的雅加达转移。政府正在一个完全不同的岛屿的地势较高的地方建造一座新首都。
