Hundreds of millions at risk as river deltas sink faster than rising seas https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/04/260420014750.htm

#Riverdeltas #environment #sea

Global Study Reveals Rapid Land Subsidence in Major River Deltas Threatening Millions

📰 Original title: Hundreds of millions at risk as river deltas sink faster than rising seas

🤖 IA: It's not clickbait ✅
👥 Usuarios: It's not clickbait ✅

View full AI summary: https://killbait.com/en/global-study-reveals-rapid-land-subsidence-in-major-river-deltas-threatening-millions/?redirpost=13e18bfa-8fc6-45bf-ad46-78f58fa6b4dd

#environment #riverdeltas #subsidence #floodrisk

Global Study Reveals Rapid Land Subsidence in Major River Deltas Threatening Millions

📰 Original title: Hundreds of millions at risk as river deltas sink faster than rising seas

🤖 IA: It's not clickbait ✅
👥 Usuarios: It's not clickbait ✅

View full AI summary: https://killbait.com/en/global-study-reveals-rapid-land-subsidence-in-major-river-deltas-threatening-millions/?redirpost=13e18bfa-8fc6-45bf-ad46-78f58fa6b4dd

#environment #riverdeltas #subsidence #floodrisk

A More Troubling Picture of Sea Level Rise Is Coming into View

Scientists have uncovered a “blind spot” in the research on rising seas, revealing that tens of millions of people thought safe from coastal flooding are at risk of inundation. Across much of the world, sea levels are higher than previously assumed and land is sinking faster.

By Fred Pearce • April 9, 2026

Excerpt: "The other new study focused on the world’s #RiverDeltas. It has long been known that many #deltas are sinking under the influence of #Groundwater pumping. But as Robert Nicholls, climate adaptation researcher at the University of East Anglia, notes, 'There have been lots of different estimates.' Data were inconsistent and based on crude, delta-wide estimates. 'Now at last we have a consistent data set, with high spatial resolution.'

"That data comes from Leonard Ohenhen, an earth system scientist at the University of California, Irvine, who used satellite-mounted radar to produce 3D maps of subsidence on 40 of the world’s biggest and most populous river deltas. He has found that subsidence afflicts more than half those deltas. Most startlingly, in 18 cases subsidence rates exceed those of #RisingTides — hence, more than doubling the effective yearly rise in local sea levels, and in some cases multiplying it tenfold.

"This again puts tens of millions of people once thought safe from rising tides this century in imminent harm’s way, including those living on the deltas of the #Nile in #Egypt, the #Mekong in #Vietnam, the #Mahanadi in #India, and the #YellowRiver in #China. If the current rate of subsidence persists, these areas will be flooded much sooner than thought.

"Researchers say many deltas and other low-lying coastal areas not included in the two studies are at greater risk than believed and urgently require detailed investigation of both actual sea levels and the rate of land subsidence."

Read more:
https://e360.yale.edu/features/sea-level-rise-land-subsidence

#SeaLevelRise #Subsidience #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #SeaLevels #RiverDeltas #GroundwaterExtraction #BigWater

Why Nature Loves Fractals

Trees, blood vessels, and rivers all follow branching patterns that make their pieces look very similar to their whole. We call this repeating, self-similar shape a fractal, and this Be Smart video explores why these branching patterns are so common, both in living and non-living systems. For trees, packing a large, leafy surface area onto the smallest amount of wood makes sense; the tree needs plenty of solar energy (and water and carbon dioxide) to photosynthesize, and it has to be efficient about how much it grows to get that energy. Similarly, our lungs and blood vessels need to pack a lot of surface area into a small space to support the diffusion that lets us move oxygen and waste through our bodies. Non-living systems, like the branches of viscous fingers or river deltas or the branching of cracks and lightning, rely on different physics but wind up with the same patterns because they, too, have to balance forces that scale with surface area and ones that scale with volume. (Video and image credit: Be Smart)

#biology #branchingFlow #diffusion #fluidDynamics #fractals #mathematics #physics #riverDeltas #science #trees #viscousFingering

Growing Downstream

This astronaut photo shows Madagascar’s largest estuary, as of 2024. On the right side, the Betsiboka River flows northwest (right to left, in the image). Less than 100 years ago, most of the estuary was navigable by ships, but now more than half of it is taken up by the river delta. Upstream on the river, extensive logging and expansions to farmland have caused severe soil erosion; the river carries that sediment downstream, dyeing the waters reddish-orange. As the river branches and the flow slows, that sediment falls out of suspension, building up islands and seeding new sand bars further downstream.

In the image above, you can compare the 2024 delta to the way it looked in 1984. Letters A, B, C, and D mark the downstream-most islands from 1984. Today newer islands and sand bars sit even further downstream. (Image credit: NASA; via NASA Earth Observatory)

#astronaut #erosion #flowVisualization #fluidDynamics #physics #riverDeltas #rivers #science #sedimentTransport #sedimentation

Streams of blue and yellow braid across Iceland’s volcanic landscape in this award-winning photo from Miki Spitzer. Glacial water shows an icy blue and sediments glisten in gold. Together, their interplay creates an arresting delta viewed from above. (Image credit: M. Spitzer; via WNPA)

https://fyfluiddynamics.com/2024/06/earths-treasure/

#fluidDynamics #fluidsAsArt #glacier #physics #riverDeltas #rivers #science #sedimentTransport