AP Environmental Science

According to Study Shows Louisiana Slowly Slipping into Gulf, Louisiana is “sliding” into the Gulf. It is not “sinking.” Why is this such a big issue? Well it will eventually effect the people who live in the area, but for the time being it could disturb the plans for building bigger and better levees.

The area of Louisiana that is being affected is approximately 250 miles long and 180 miles wide. This area includes the delta of the Mississippi. “The bedrock under heavily populated southeast Louisian is breaking away at a glacial speed — at the pace fingernails grow.” Over the past year, this section of the state has slid about the width of two credit cards. The delta of the Mississippi has been build up over the past 8000 years. Over about the last 70 years, over 2000 square miles of the coast of the United States in that area has disappeared. This is through sinking or erosion.

Probably one of the most important questions about the sinking is why it is happening. There are different theories on why this is occuring. One theory is that extraction of oil and natural gas has caused the sinking. We were drilling in that area in the mid and late 20th century. Another theory is that waterways, specifically the Mississippi River, were “straightjacketed by levees.” This means that the floodwaters were unable to reach the soil to replenish it with nutrients.

I think that this needs to be investigated further. It is a serious issue because now it might just be Louisiana, but what if other parts of the United States start to sink. Two credit card widths does not seem like that much, but if you take into account that Louisiana looses that much land every year it is amazing. I wonder what would happen to all those people that live on that land. I mean look at what happened when they had to leave their homes for a short period of time with Hurricane Katrina. Where would they go if they could never go back to their homes and the lives that they have built for themselves.

STUDY SHOWS LOUISIANA SLOWLY SLIPPING INTO GULF by: Cain Burdeau    http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=11950