According to NASA Scientists NYC is sinking–an old study hypothesized it was due to the weight of its skyscrapers–and this (eerie) new interactive map shows us just what New York may soon look like due to rising sea levels.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) recently created a Sea Level Rise Viewer tool, which plays out different scenarios of how New York may look in the coming decades due to ocean levels rising.
The tool looks as far as the year 2100.
The tool allows you to explore different scenarios, such as what some local predictions are in specific areas.
For example, the best case scenario for sea levels in Willets Point in the year 2100 shows a 2.33 foot rise in sea level, though the worst case scenario shows a 6.50 foot rise.
Even worse, Manhattan and Port Jefferson on Long Island have a worst case scenario of a 6.56 foot rise in sea levels by 2100, and Montauk has a worst case scenario of a 6.66 foot rise.
A sliding scale also lets you see how specific areas would look after sea levels rose. For example, the below photos show Fulton Street as it is now, and comparatively how it’d look if sea levels rose 10 feet.
Areas near creeks and rivers could find themselves completely underwater if the worst case scenarios were to play out.
SILive mentions how “New York communities as far north as Albany to be identified as ‘vulnerable’ in the case of a six foot rise in sea level.” And experts predict that sea rise will unfortunately only continue to impact communities.
NOAA oceanographer William Sweet told NJ Advance Media (a SILive sister site),:
Increased carbon emissions are increasing atmospheric and ocean heating that is melting land-based ice sheets and glaciers and causing thermal expansion of the ocean resulting in coastal sea level rise along most U.S. coastlines.
In total the tool has six tabs to explore: Sea Level Rise, Local Scenarios, Mapping Confidence, Marsh Migration, Vulnerability, and High Tide Flooding. Explore the tool for yourself here.