"Scientists have known for years that water levels are rising faster in the Chesapeake Bay region than just about anywhere else in the world — because water is only part of the problem here. The land is also sinking.

That phenomenon, known as “land subsidence,” accounts for more than half of the sea level rise in many places around the Bay. But if researchers and land managers look up subsidence rates in the scientific literature for some important piece of real estate, they encounter a barrage of different estimates.

Some clarity has arrived. Scientists undertaking the largest research effort of its kind in the Chesapeake region have officially clocked the average speed of the Bay region’s sinking topography at a rate of 1.4 millimeters per year.

That amount — just under the width of a penny — is roughly consistent with what smaller, more localized studies have suggested.

But the authors of this study, led by Virginia Tech and the U.S. Geological Survey, say their effort is unique for its size and standardized approach. They measured vertical land motion at dozens of previously unstudied sites around the Bay and combined their findings with information gathered at 120 existing stations.

The result, they say, is the first Baywide clearinghouse for subsidence data. . ."