MAJOR CITY SINKING INTO THE GROUND

It’s survived aliens and zombies, ice sheets and asteroid strikes. But there may be one thing New York City can’t escape. And that’s its own weight.

Manhattan Island’s skyscrapers are sinking.

But it’s not the leading contender to be the next Atlantis.

That honour goes to the Indonesian capital, Jakarta. It’s sinking at a remarkable 11cm each year. The Big Apple, however, has been the subject of a new study assessing satellite measurements and analysing geological layers.

It proves the weight of the city’s upward urban bloat is proving too much for the soil beneath it to bear. Soft sediments are shifting under the relentless load, pushing them down and outwards.

The one million buildings housing eight million people weigh a combined 764 billion kilograms. This is causing New York City to subside at up to 2mm yearly.

And while it may not sound like much, parts of Lower Manhattan stand just one metre above sea level.

At the current rate, king tides may be rolling down its streets within a few short decades once the effects of rising sea levels are considered.

“Every additional high-rise building constructed at coastal, river, or lakefront settings could contribute to future flood risk,” warns United States Geological

Survey geologist Tom Parsons.

Mr Parsons and his team of researchers have mapped the city’s weight distribution on a 100-by-100-meter grid. This doesn’t include the weight of asphalt roads, brick bridges or concrete pavements.

And they warn the risk will only accelerate if building intensities increase further and groundwater extraction projects continue.

Meanwhile, Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta, could be largely underwater by 2050, researchers suggest.

Decades of changing land use and groundwater extraction are causing parts of the city to sink by up to 11cm each year – even as sea levels rise by about 5mm in the same time frame.

The outcome is so bleak the Indonesian government has already implemented plans to relocate much of its 30 million people to a new city being carved out of the jungle 1300km away on the island of Borneo.