New Study Shows Detroit Is Sinking & There’s No Way To Stop It

The city of Detroit is sinking, and there’s nothing they can do about it. In fact, it’s not only Detroit that is apparently being affected by subsidence, but cities like New York, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Charlotte, North Carolina, Denver, and Columbus in Ohio are all sinking, according to Researchers at Columbia and Virginia Tech.

Recently, the study was published on nature.com, which shows a full breakdown of how the study was conducted and the findings that show Detroit is slowly sinking:

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In every city, at least 20% of the area is sinking (that is, VLM < 0), and in 25 out of the 28 cities, at least 65% is sinking. We estimate that a total land area of 17,900 km² is sinking across these 28 US cities. The cities with the most widespread subsidence in the United States, with about 98% of the cities’ area affected include Chicago, Dallas, Columbus, Detroit, Fort Worth, Denver, New York, Indianapolis, Houston and Charlotte.

Why Is Detroit Sinking?

This is their finding, according to the study:

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. The compounding effect of climate change and urban population and socioeconomic growth emerges as a critical concern, potentially accelerating subsidence rates and transforming previously stable urban areas into vulnerable zones

So, How Fast Is Detroit Sinking?

Detroit's subsidence rate is roughly 1.52 millimeters per year. That's about the size of a standard bank card. It's a little, but that little over a long period of time can add up in a terrible way.