Greece’s capital Athens sinks 10 millimeters annually because of the decline in surface soil, studies show. This phenomenon has been observed during the last 30 years and thus die to excessive building construction. According to Sunday newspaper Real News, the phenomenon was first observed by the European Space Agency, and has been confirmed by the Department of Geology, University of Athens that carries studies since 1990.
“The ground sank 230 millimeter since 1990,” scientists told Real News, stressing at the same time “Athens cannot bear the weight of its construction.”
The scientists of European Space Agency mapped 65,000 square kilometers of Greece’s mainland, i.e. half the size of the country, and were able to present with the precision of a millimeter the earth deformation due to natural and human-created factors.
What scientists found is that the problem is more significant in those areas of the Greek capital where excessive construction took place in the near past. Construction that puts α lot of pressure to the Earth’s crust.
Τhe problem is more intense in the suburbs of Kallithea, Ano Liosa, Chalandri and Nea Ionia. Subsidence – sinking of the ground – has been also observed in coastal areas.
The phenomenon has been observed also in other Greek cities like Corinth, Larissa and Thessaloniki.
No, the scientists did not propose that the buildings had to be demolished, neither did they warn of earth holes swallowing houses and humans like in the USA ….
PS I was thinking I was to get shorter due to age. But apparently I was wrong… it’s the debt-construction sitting on my head.
