One of America’s most important urban centers is sinking into the sea, the New York Post reports, citing a “scary” study led by NASA.
What happened?
In January 2025, a NASA-led study was published in Science Advances, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Los Angeles, like New York City, is centrally located in part because of its coastal location. Before the advent of air travel, oceans primarily transported people and goods. If a city is close to the sea, it plays a vital role in trade and commerce.
Scientists have long warned that New York City and neighboring Long Island are sinking. The collapse of the former was partly due to the weight of the skyscraper.
NASA’s research is focused on Los Angeles and San Francisco, studying coastal vertical land motion “including uplift and subsidence.” Subsidence is defined as “the sinking of land,” according to the California Department of Water Resources. Groundwater extraction is one of the main reasons.
As The Washington Post explains, unfortunately, subsidence doesn’t happen in a vacuum in Los Angeles or other affected coastal cities around the world. However, nearly 70% of Californians live near the coast.
Coupled with rapidly rising sea levels, experts fear this one-two punch could result in subsidence “more than double previous predictions” over the next 25 years.
NASA researchers reviewed high-resolution satellite data from 2015 to 2023 to make these predictions.
“Our results indicate that regional estimates significantly underestimate sea level rise in parts of San Francisco and Los Angeles, with sea level rise expected to be more than twice as high by 2050,” they explained in the study. They cited past and future groundwater extraction as major influencing factors.
Why is this important?
On November 2, industry trade publication Smart Water Magazine revisited the survey results. It noted that the causes identified in the study, such as groundwater extraction, were man-made.
Human intervention is less predictable but more controllable than natural factors such as the natural movement of land.
As average temperatures rise and sea levels rise, extreme weather becomes more frequent and dangerous environmental changes accelerate.
Land structure has always changed, but scientific consensus shows that human activity greatly exacerbates these effects.
In a press release from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, landslide expert Alexander Handweg explains why the risk is so serious and urgent.
“In effect, we are seeing the land footprint of significant impacts expand at a rate that puts human life and infrastructure at risk,” he warned.
What measures are being taken?
In the study’s abstract, its authors cite the “urgent need” to update standards for assessing sea level rise and subsidence, calling for improved coastal management and adaptation efforts.
A separate NASA press release about the study urged the public to continue paying attention to key climate issues such as rising sea levels.
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