Amazon Floods Lower Ground Level by Inches
From Times Staff and Wire Reports
The seasonal flooding of the Amazon River lowers the ground level in the region by about three inches because of the weight of the extra water, an international team reported this month in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
The subsidence, which reverses itself when floodwaters recede, is about three times as big as the team expected. The team monitored the rise and fall of ground level with highly accurate GPS stations. By following the variations for several years, they obtained an accurate measure of the changes.
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