New Orleans Sinking Faster Than Thought
Posted: Thu Jun 01, 2006 12:28 pm
Someone tell me why we are spending billions and billions and billions of dollars to rebuild a sinking city?
http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/05/31/D8HV2TCO1.html
New Orleans Sinking Faster Than Thought
May 31 8:02 PM US/Eastern
By SETH BORENSTEIN
AP Science Writer
WASHINGTON - Everyone has known New Orleans is a sinking city. Now new research suggests parts of the city are sinking even faster than many scientists imagined _ more than an inch a year.
That may explain some of the levee failures during Hurricane Katrina and it raises more worries about the future.
The research, reported in the journal Nature, is based on new satellite radar data for the three years before Katrina struck in The data show that some areas are sinking four or five times faster than the rest of the city. And that, experts say, can be deadly.
"My concern is the very low-lying areas," said lead author Tim Dixon, a University of Miami geophysicist. "I think those areas are death traps. I don't think those areas should be rebuilt."
The blame for this phenomenon, called subsidence, includes overdevelopment, drainage and natural seismic shifts.
http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/05/31/D8HV2TCO1.html