Environment
As Sea Levels Rise, Venice Sinks
Research shows the Italian city is still subsiding, a problem made worse by rising sea levels.
Rising sea levels are an obvious problem for the canal-laden city of Venice, Italy, which is threatened with increased flooding as climate change pushes the waterline farther and farther up. And now, scientists have found that the flooding problems are being exacerbated by the entire city's gradual sinking.
The city is actually sinking into the water at a rate of about 2 millimeters per year, according to researchers at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego. Two millimeters might not seem like a lot – that's only a drop of 1 centimeter every five years – but couple it with the 2 millimeters per year that sea levels are rising, and the problem starts to get at least a little concerning.