Because of the floods after Harvey, the crust of the earth bent
Photo: NOAA
The scale of record floods as a result of Harvey is hard to imagine. A hurricane has every chance of becoming the most expensive natural cataclysm in history.
According to Gismeteo, a hurricane brought down about 124 trillion liters of water to the affected region, thus adding 124 trillion kg to the land mass. It’s easy to get confused in these numbers, but scientist Chris Milliner from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory decided to translate the figures into more familiar concepts. He calculated that the weight of the water discharged by Harvey was so huge that the crust of the Earth was deformed and slipped by about 2 cm.
Photo: Texas Military Dept @TXMilitary
Milliner also found that in some parts of Texas, the Earth’s crust, on the contrary, had risen upwards. This is similar to what happens when you press a fist on a ball of dough; the dough under your fist is compressed, but it swells around your fist.
Scientists have not measured the effect of water weight on the planet’s crust for the first time. For example, the Himalayas are becoming lower because of the huge amounts of snow. The Three Gorges Dam in China contains so much water that small earthquakes occur because of it.
The good news is that the land that has settled because of Harvey's flood waters should re-awaken when the water recedes. But the exact contour of the landscape will never be the same.
Read also on ForumDaily:
16 states with the most natural disasters
How to protect your home and wallet if you live in a hurricane zone
How to survive a hurricane with minimal losses
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