Norwegian space scientists monitoring sinking Millennium Tower

The Millennium Tower is pictured in San Francisco, California, U.S.Photo: REUTERS/Beck Diefenbach/File Photo

Using a new method based on satellite images, Norwegian scientists have measured how quickly the Millennium Tower skyscraper in San Francisco is sinking.

The 58-storey building has been nicknamed ‘the leaning tower of San Francisco’ because it has begun to tip due to subsidence.

The new satellite measurements show that the Millennium Tower moves more than five centimeters per year, while other buildings around it area not moving, according to the Norwegian Space Centre.

The method was developed by researchers at the Northern Research Institute (NORUT), Geological Survey and PPo.labs in the Netherlands, in cooperation with the European Space Agency (ESA).

The sinking building has been the subject of numerous lawsuits since it was completed in 2009. The suits have involved developers, city officials and the owners of luxury apartments in the building, according to the news agency AP.

The investigative and analytic procedure can be used to monitor subsidence that is happening in cities across the world, and has also been tested at sites in Oslo.

Leaning can cause damage to buildings, bridges and roads, and is often caused because groundwater has been lost.

 

Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today