Washington is literally going down and according to geologists, the District of Columbia may find its land six inches lower in the next 100 years.
Geologists from the University of Vermont said in its new study on Tuesday that the technical term for this occurrence is "forebulge collapse" and the sinking is naturally caused by the land resettling.
The northeastern part of the United States was once covered in ice sheet thousands of years ago, but as the ice melted, part of land around the Chesapeake Bay area began turning upwards. However, 20,000 years later, this land is settling back down and shrinking.
"It's a bit like sitting on one side of a water bed filled with very thick honey," Ben DeJong, the lead author of the study explains in a press release. "Then the other side goes up. But when you stand, the bulge comes down again."
Geologists conducted their experiment by drilling a hole near the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge so that they can calculate and examine the sediment layers. Combined with this data and a map, they came up with the 3-D model of the land area to show how the land is shrinking.
The researchers said that this natural occurrence is in its early stages. But as a result, the sea level in Chesapeake has been rising faster than anywhere in the East Coast. Thus, scientists say, there could be more flooding expected in the region and it will get worse.
"Right now is the time to start making preparations," urged DeJong in the press release.
"Six inches does not sound like much, but when you're in a landscape like the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, that's a lot of sea level rise," he said in an interview with CNN. "I have worked alongside private land owners who have had family farms in the area for years and they are the first to tell you they are losing land."
"It's ironic that the nation's capital -- the place least responsive to the dangers of climate change -- is sitting in one of the worst spots it could be in terms of this land subsidence," said University of Vermont geologist Paul Bierman in the press release, in response to some of the views on climate change by politicians in Washington. "Will the Congress just sit there with their feet getting ever wetter? What's next, forebulge denial?" he quipped.
The report was published in the Geological Society of America.
