South Louisiana is Moving Into the Sea!
posted in Amazing Facts, Devastation |
A major part of southeast Louisiana is slowing moving into the Gulf of Mexico, according to a recent report from the American Geophysical Union. Researchers have for decades known that the southern part of the state is sinking. according to recent findings, there is a large egg-shape area around 250 miles (400 kilometers) long and 180 miles (290 kilometers) wide which is slowly moving into the Gulf.
“This whole section is moving south-southeast and pulling apart from the rest of the country up in the Lake Pontchartrain region,” said lead study author Roy Dokka, executive director of the Center for Geoinformatics at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.
According to a Report in the December 2006 issue of the journal Geophysical Research Letters this region is moving at a speed that is equal to that of a glacier, around a few millimeters in a year. Timothy Dixon, a study co-author and professor of geology and geophysics at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida, says there is no need for panic.
“If it continues to move in the same speed as it is moving now, then it could take thousands of years for this process to have serious affects. During that tiem new orleans could have a very high risk of flooding.
Bedrock
many parts of Southern Louisiana that sit on the Mississippi River Delta have been built over many thousands of years with sediments from the river. Unlike the solid bedrock in other parts of the country, this part of the state is situated on an unstable land.
Eventhough the movement of south Louisiana is a slow and natural process, but the movement of the land has increased due to human activities like the building of levees and exploring for oil.
Quakes and Floods
Large earthquakes have been occurring around the south of New Orleans over the past 20 or 30 years that are likely to be tied to the region’s sliding movement.
According to Dokka, there is a slight potential for a seriously damaging earthquake, but nothing that could cause south Louisiana to suddenly break away from the rest of the state.
What’s more, study co-author Dixon added, the region that is sliding sits over a layer of salt that may prevent earthquake-type stresses from building up enough to trigger a large quake.
The researchers say that flooding could be Louisiana’s main concern and that the state can only be saved by protect itself by monitoring coastal subsidence through a global positioning system network that is already being used. When monitored properly, levees can be raised and flood protection can be changed as the land sinks and moves.
“What’s important,” Dokka said, “is that we’ve been able to recognize one of the important processes that makes south Louisiana vulnerable.”