Parts of California's coastline around Los Angeles and San Francisco are sinking, which means sea levels could rise more than twice as much as previously predicted in those areas. Scientists at NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reached that conclusion after studying ground elevation along the coast using satellite radar.
The ground is dropping by more than 0.4 inches per year in sinking hotspots like San Rafael and Foster City in the San Francisco Bay Area, according to the scientists.
That sinking means local sea levels could rise by more than 17 inches in the next 25 years, which would more than double a previous regional estimate of 7.4 inches. Both of these hotspots were partially built on landfill.
Near Los Angeles, similar reclaimed areas like Newport Beach are sinking at a rate that is likely to add up to 6 inches to the 6.7 inches of sea level rise predicted for 2050, according to the researchers' study, which was published Jan 29 in the journal Science Advances.
"In many parts of the world, like the reclaimed ground beneath San Francisco, the land is moving down faster than the sea itself is going up," study lead author Marin Govorcin, a remote sensing scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in a statement.
The rising and sinking of land, which the researchers called "vertical land motion," are driven by natural processes, such as the movement of tectonic plates, and human factors, like the pumping of groundwater, according to the study.
Globally, sea levels are rising along with climate change. The extra heat from the warming planet melts glaciers and ice sheets and expands the water in the oceans, ultimately pushing coastlines farther inland. These rising seas threaten cities and coastal communities around the world.
Vertical land motion can be difficult to predict, but the study highlights that it's an important factor to include in predictions of how much of the ocean will rise onto land in the coming decades.
(Source: NASA, China Daily)
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