New estimates show 275 trillion pounds of water fell in the Houston metro area during Harvey, causing the Earth’s crust to deform and sink as a result of the weight, geologist Trevor Nace writes for Forbes.
The slight change to Earth’s crust around Houston was measured by extremely precise satellites. The measurement was undertaken by the Nevada Geodetic Laboratory and results tweeted by Chris Milliner at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
The image shows vertical motion in and around Houston showing a sinking of the crust by 2 centimeters with the largest deformation in west and southwest Houston.
“The instance of Harvey flooding will be interesting to continue to measure how fast the crust rebounds as floodwater flows into the ocean,” Nace writes. “However, we may see the ground is permanently sunken in a slight amount as a result of the flood.”
