The immense weight of infrastructure compresses underlying sediments, while natural geological processes continue to reshape the landscape thousands of years after the last Ice Age.
The Legacy of Ancient Glaciers
One of the lesser-known contributors to New York’s sinking lies deep in the region’s geological history.
Approximately 20,000 years ago, massive glaciers covered large portions of North America.
The tremendous weight of these ice sheets compressed the Earth’s crust beneath them.
When the glaciers eventually melted, the land began a slow process of readjustment known as glacial isostatic adjustment.
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