Satellites show 28 US cities are sinking, including NYC and Chicago: 'Infrastructure can be silently compromised'

An aerial view of NYC with water around it.

A new study has found that the 28 most populous cities in the United States — including New York, Chicago, Dallas and Denver — are sinking at rates between two and 10 millimeters (0.08 and 0.4 inches) per year.

Using satellite-based radar measurements, a team of researchers from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University developed high-resolution maps of sinking land, or subsidence, across major U.S. cities. In each of the 28 cities studied, at least 20% of the city was sinking; in 25 of the cities, at least 65% of the land was sinking.