{"id":61961,"date":"2025-09-04T15:17:58","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T09:47:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=61961"},"modified":"2025-09-04T15:44:33","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T10:14:33","slug":"land-subsidence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/land-subsidence\/","title":{"rendered":"Land Subsidence"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Land Subsidence Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Uttarakhand, already battered by natural calamities including cloudbursts, flash floods, and landslides across its mountainous regions, is now facing a new and terrifying phenomenon: widespread land subsidence in Chamoli\u2019s Nanda Nagar.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Land Subsidence<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Land subsidence is a <\/span><b>gradual settling or sudden sinking of the Earth\u2019s surface.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This geotechnical phenomenon occurs when the <\/span><b>ground loses its ability to support <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the <\/span><b>weight above it<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><b>leading to a downward shift.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It can occur as a result of <\/span><b>natural factors <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(e.g., <\/span><b><a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/volcanism\/\" target=\"_blank\">volcanic<\/a> or seismic activity, collapse of subsurface cavities,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> compaction of loose fine-grained deposits) or <\/span><b>anthropogenic activities <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(e.g.,<\/span><b> excessive groundwater (GW) abstraction, mining<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, subsurface energy extraction).<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Although it is a <\/span><b>gradual process,<\/b> <b>taking years to decades to develop<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, land subsidence presents serious socioeconomic, environmental, and security challenges globally.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Impacts:<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Land subsidence can <\/span><b>cause damage to infrastructure <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and lead to i<\/span><b>ncreased flood risks<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><b>permanent reduction in aquifers&#8217; storage capacity.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It can also cause <\/span><b>disturbance to water management <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and possible repercussions such as <\/span><b>increased saltwater intrusion as a result of reduction in land elevation<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><b>changes in the gradient of streams and drains.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>High maintenance costs for roads, railways, pipelines,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><b>buildings <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">are only a few examples of stresses brought upon by land subsidence.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Although land subsidence has been <\/span><b>historically observed in low deltaic areas or coastal regions,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> it is being <\/span><b>increasingly observed in large inland areas near densely urban,<\/b> <b>agricultural, and industrial areas with high groundwater demand.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Excess groundwater extraction<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is believed to be one of the <\/span><b>main causes of large-scale <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and <\/span><b>high-magnitude land subsidence.<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Groundwater overexploitation <\/span><b>compacts the underground reservoirs<\/b> <b>because water <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">is the element partly responsible for <\/span><b>holding up the ground.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The<\/span><b> excess water withdrawa<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">l leads to <\/span><b>compaction of the underlying depleted porous formation, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">thus inducing land subsidence.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The total global extent of land surface susceptible to subsidence has been estimated to be 12 million sq.km.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Land subsidence has been <\/span><b>observed all around the world, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">with <\/span><b>major sites in the USA,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0 <\/span><b>China, Iran, Indonesia,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Taiwan, Vietnam, Egypt, Japan, Mexico, and Italy.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newindianexpress.com\/nation\/2025\/Sep\/02\/land-subsidence-in-chamolis-nanda-nagar-destroys-homes-triggers-panic-in-uttarakhand\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">NIE<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Land Subsidence is a gradual settling or sudden sinking of the Earth\u2019s surface. Read more about Land Subsidence, Definition, Factors, Impacts, Latest News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":61974,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2507],"class_list":{"0":"post-61961","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-land-subsidence","9":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}