Chesapeake at the Crossroads - I Believe We're Sinkin' Down

A little article from USGS on the issue of how much of the problem of "rising sea level" in the Chesapeake Bay region is really a problem with sinking land, and how people do make the problem worse:

Communities of Southern Chesapeake Bay Find Sea Level Rise Heightened by Sinking Land

Communities and coastal habitats in the southern Chesapeake Bay region face increased flooding because, as seawater levels are rising in the bay, the land surface is also sinking. A new USGS report released today concludes that intensive groundwater withdrawals are a major cause of the sinking land, or 'land subsidence', that contributes to flooding risks in the region.

"From a practical viewpoint, sea level is relative to the land surface," said Jerad Bales, Acting Associate Director for Water at USGS. “Whether the water is rising or the land is sinking, or both, the effect is the same: greater vulnerability to coastal storms and loss of important coastal habitat, both of which result in economic losses."

The new study presents a variety of data and findings from previous studies to examine land subsidence in the southern Chesapeake Bay region.

Previous USGS studies have r established that the Chesapeake Bay region has the highest rates of relative sea-level rise on the East Coast. The sea-level rise rates around the Chesapeake Bay range from 3.2 to 4.7mm/per year with 4.4 mm/yr in Norfolk. (A penny is about 1 mm thick.) Land subsidence alone causes more than half of the observed relative sea-level rise in the southern Chesapeake Bay.

I like the penny analogy; I'll have to remember that one.



Wombat-Socho got the master Rule 5 Sunday post up on "Rule 5 Monday" this week.