Ground sinking from earthquakes accelerates sea level rise on Pacific islands

The Samoa Islands are sinking at an accelerated pace after earthquakes caused deformation of the Earth’s mantle beneath the archipelago. Projections of sea level rise that do not take this further subsidence into account significantly underestimate the risk of flooding for islands.

In 2009, two magnitude 8 earthquakes triggered tsunamis in the Samoa and Tonga islands, killing nearly 200 people and causing hundreds of millions of dollars in damage. The earthquake also released stress…