Researchers from Arizona State University's School of Earth and Space Exploration believe that parts of the metropolitan area of Phoenix, Arizona, are slowly and continously sinking. The suburbs with the highest rate of sinking are Sun City West, Chandler, Peoria and the North Valley, including nearby towns Tucson and Case Grande and Maricopa and the Pinal Counties. According to a report by Arizona Republic, these areas are said to be sinking by an average of three quarters a year due to a phenomenon called "land subsidence."
The scientists claim that the sinking has been caused by the mass pumping of groundwater in the city in the past few decades due to its growing population.
The research group used data obtained from satellite imagery and remote sensing to compare changes in elevation levels in the state, caused by natural processes like subsidence and landslides.
The metropolitan area, home to more than 1.5 million residents, is seen to experience problems with floods in the future. There is also a possibility that, because of the changes in the sediment content of the ground, it would lose the ground's capacity to store as much water as it used to.
According to the report of Newser, Megan Miller, one of the researchers involved with the ASU study, said that "costly structural damages" should be expected and everyone must "keep an eye on it." Cracks on the ground in the form of fissures are also going to form in several years. These fissures will affect much of the city's sewer and drainage system causing more problems in draining, especially during the rainy season. Miller is a co-author of the study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research.
The capital city of Arizona, Phoenix, is the second major American city reported to be sinking, after Washington, D.C. Studies by the University of Vermont predicted that Washington will sink six inches by 2099, as reported by the UPI.
