The study, conducted by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), says that a ‘wobble’ in Moon’s orbit combined with rising sea levels due to climate change will devastate Earth’s devastating floods. The study was published in the journal Nature Climate Change on June 21.
The study warns that these extra flood days won’t be spread out evenly over the year, but are likely to cluster together over the span of just a few months; coastal areas in the US that now face just two or three floods a month may soon face a dozen or more, Livescience reported. Called ‘nuisance floods’, these currently occur in coastal areas when the tide reaches about 2 feet above the daily average high tide. These events are much more problematic for businesses because they inundate the streets and homes, affecting everyday life. These prolonged coastal flood seasons will cause major disruptions to lives and livelihoods if communities don’t start planning for them now, the researchers cautioned. Through mapping the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) sea-level rise scenarios, flooding thresholds and astronomical cycles, researchers found flooding in American coastal cities could be several multiples worse in the 2030s, when the next moon “wobble” is expected to begin. They expect the flooding to significantly damage infrastructure and displace communities.
