America’s East Coast Is Sinking Fast

By Douglas McIntyre  •  September 2, 2025
Burak The Weekender Pexels

Data based measurements show that much of New England, Pennsylvania, Baltimore, and South Carolina are sinking into the ocean quickly. The financial effects on local economies and the fate of large metro areas is too large to measure. 

NASA’s data shows that among the reasons for the problem of rising seas is ice melting in both the Arctic and Antarctic regions. The land is also sinking because of beach erosion. The second is caused mostly by waves. 

A map supplied by NASA shows, in great detail, the places that have the most immediate problems. However, the problem has already begun. Houses have fallen into the Atlantic along the coast of North Carolina. The downtown areas of several coastal regions are flooded when storms coincide with high tides. Hurricanes can exacerbate the problem, at least temporarily.

Flooded Land

The term for sinking land is “subsided.” Leonard Ohenhen, a geophysicist at Virginia Tech, recently said, “Subsidence is a pernicious, highly localized, and often overlooked problem in comparison to global sea level rise, but it’s a major factor that explains why water levels are rising in many parts of the eastern U.S.,”

Most of the comparisons about the change in coastal erosion were taken between 2007 and 2020. Over the last four years, this has probably gotten worse.

There is no money to solve this problem. The Trump Administration is not likely to provide financial aid. Cities, business, and individuals don’t have access to that level of capital

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