NASA has pinpointed several 'hotspots' across New York City that are sinking faster than the entire metropolitan region.
Researchers determined the city is sinking at an average rate of 0.06 inches per year, while specific locations, including a runway at LaGuardia Airport and Arthur Ashe Stadium, are dipping more than twice as fast.
Other hotspots include Interstate 78, which passes through the Holland Tunnel that connects New York to New Jersey, Brooklyn's Coney Island and Arverne in Queens - all built on artificial fill.
A runway at LaGuardia Airport and Arthur Ashe Stadium are sinking up to 0.18 inches per year compared to the average 0.06 inches New York City dips each year.
While the city is dipping under the weight of skyscrapers, the newly identified hotspots are sinking because they sit atop an ancient glacier that is retreating.
NASA has pinpointed several 'hotspots' across New York City that are sinking at fast rates - putting them at a higher risk of rising sea levels. Researchers determined the city is sinking at an average rate of 0.06 inches per year
The ancient glacier covered most of New England about 24,000 years ago, and a wall of ice more than a mile high covered what is today Albany in upstate New York.
Earth's mantle, somewhat like a flexed mattress, has been slowly readjusting.
New York City, which sits on land raised just outside the ice sheet's edge, is now sinking back down.
NASA scientists teamed up with researchers at Rutgers University in New budget limo jersey city to analyze the 302.6-square-mile city of five boroughs: Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx and Staten Island.
The team analyzed the upward and downward vertical land motion, or the uplift and subsidence, in New York City from 2016 to 2023.
The work involved using an interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) remote sensing technique, which combines two or more 3D observations of the same region to reveal surface motion or topography.
NASA scientists teamed up with researchers at Rutgers University in New Jersey to analyze the 302.6-square-mile city of five boroughs: Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx and Staten Island
Mapping vertical land motion across the New York City area, researchers found the land sinking (indicated in blue) by about 0.06 inches per year on average. They also detected modest uplift (shown in red) in Queens and Brooklyn. White dotted lines indicate county/borough borders.
Much of the motion they observed occurred in areas where prior modifications to Earth's surface - such as land reclamation and the construction of landfills - made the ground looser and more compressible beneath subsequent buildings.
The study found runway 13/31 at LaGuardia Airport is subsiding 0.15 inches per year.
This runway is built on a former landfill (and is currently undergoing an $8 billion renovation designed partly to alleviate enhanced flooding from sea level rise.
Arthur Ashe Tennis Stadium, the world's largest tennis venue, was found to be sinking 0.18 inches per year - this venue was also built on a landfill.
Interstate 78 is dipping 0.07 inches, and the southern portion of Governors Island is sinking 0.03 inches yearly.
Runway 13/31 at LaGuardia Airport in Queens is subsiding at a rate of about 0.15 inches per year
However, the team also found some areas a rising unevenly - like part of Newtown Creek, a Superfund site in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn, is rising by about 0.06 inches
