71.5% of US coastal areas reportedly sank faster than 1 millimeter a year

ScienceAlert reports that researchers from Tufts University and Virginia Tech analyzed more than 190 million measurements of land motion from 2007–2020, mostly collected by satellite. They found 71.5% of US coastal areas sinking faster than 1 millimeter a year, with the highest rates along the Gulf Coast and widespread sinking along the East Coast. The researchers estimated that about 84.3 million people across US coastal census tracts live in areas affected by varying levels of sinking. Their study, published in Communications Earth & Environment, calls for subsidence data to guide coastal planning and infrastructure investment.