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NYC's sinking - 19th June 2023
New York City’s a big place. 8.4 million people live there. It has many tall buildings. They are skyscrapers. New York’s first skyscraper was the Tower Building. People built it in 1889. Now, the city has 274 skyscrapers.
Every year, the city sinks by two millimetres. The heavy buildings move the ground. The ground under New York City isn’t hard rock. It’s clay. This type of soil is soft. It moves a lot. Soil normally moves when we take minerals or oil from the earth. But in New York, it's the heavy buildings and skyscrapers.
The ocean will flood many parts of the city. New York City may look like Venice in Italy.
Many cities around the world are facing the same problem. In the future, 70 percent of people will live in cities. We need to plan cities carefully.
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