Phoenix, 1,086 feet above sea level, 4,345 feet below sea level. Las Vegas, 2,001 feet above sea level, 3,512 feet below sea level. Louis, 465 feet above sea level, 1,499 feet below sea level. Chicago, 586 feet above sea level, 2,229 feet below sea level. Dallas, 430 feet above sea level, 1,986 feet below sea level. Atlanta, 1,000 feet above sea level, 1,416 feet below sea level. Here are other locations, their elevations and how they would sink if the crust had a uniform temperature: If anything, coastal cities face flooding much sooner from sea level rise due to global warming, he added. “We propose this is because, at the base of the crust, the Colorado Plateau is significantly warmer than the Great Plains [930 degrees Fahrenheit,” Hasterok said.Īmerican cities are in no danger of being submerged any time soon, however, as it will take billions of years for North American rock to cool and become dense enough that it sinks, Chapman said. Instead, they usually attribute the buoyancy and elevation of various continental areas to variations in the thickness and mineral composition of crustal rocks.Īs an example of how rock temperature affects elevation, the researchers point to the Colorado Plateau, which sits 6,000 feet above sea level, and the Great Plains, which is only 1,000 feet above sea level, despite having the same rock composition. “If you subtracted the heat that keeps North American elevations high, most of the continent would be below sea level, except the high Rocky Mountains, the Sierra Nevada and the Pacific Northwest of the Cascade Range,” says study team member Derrick Hasterok of the University of Utah.Īccording to Chapman, scientists have largely overlooked differences in rock temperature as an explanation of elevations on continents. Some regions would remain at the same elevation. The rock beneath America’s Emerald City is cooler than average for North America removing the temperature difference would cause the rock to expand and become more buoyant, so Seattle would rise. Seattle, for instance, would reach an elevation of 5,949 feet, up from its current elevation of about 500 feet above sea level. Boston would be 1,823 below sea level, and Los Angeles would be 3,756 beneath the Pacific. New York City, for example, would be dunked 1,427 feet beneath the Atlantic. The findings show that if North America had a uniform crust, many American cities would be underwater. The findings are detailed in two studies published in the Journal of Geophysical-Solid Earth, a publication of the American Geophysical Union.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |