Massachusetts’s Logan Airport is SINKING into the Earth, Warns New Study
New year, new problem to be made aware of: LOGAN AIRPORT IS SINKING!!! I picture Logan being swallowed by the Earth ala quick sand in an old Bugs Bunny cartoon – quick sand doesn’t do that by the way, but that’s a story for another time. A new study from Oxford Academic breaks down the sinking of the entire East Coast including Logan Airport.
The study, reported in PNAS nexus Volume 3 Issue 1, paints a bleak future for the east coast of the US as it continues to slowly be swallowed by the Earth. The study finds that subsidence rates of 2 mm per year affects a maximum of 2.1 million people, 867,000 properties, and significant infrastructure on the East Coast of the United States. To put it in more consumable terms, subsidence rate is about how fast the ground or land is sinking or settling down. It can happen for various reasons, like when we take things out from under the ground (like water or minerals) or when the ground itself goes through changes. So in a nut shell, subsidence rate is like looking at how quickly the land is changing or sinking.
Logan Airport found itself on the short list of only 4 US airports exposed to subsidence. Logan is currently experiencing a subsidence rate of 1.1mm per year which doesn’t sound like a lot – but year after year that adds up quickly, especially on an airport runway where every millimeter is an important millimeter.
Fighting against subsidence involves addressing its underlying causes and finding ways to prevent or mitigate the sinking or settling of the ground. Part of that is educating the public, which was the scratch-the-surface goal of this article. To read more from Oxford Academic’s study – it’s packed with info – CLICK HERE!
Maybe this is another reason we come across so grumpy or rude to outsiders. Our freaking home is sinking!! More on that apparent grumpiness below. How rude are we compared to other rude cities? Oh read on, please and thank you…