2,500 Louisiana Historical Sites in Danger of Sea Level Rise
We've all heard about the dangers of rising sea levels, but nowhere is that more apparent than Louisiana's gulf coast. We know that the ocean's level is rising because we have some pretty amazing tools that watch that kind of thing, including NASA's Gradient Fingerprint imaging software. It's designed to help those in coastal areas plan for the imminent rising water, and what it says about Louisiana's Gulf Coast is bad news for thousands of historical sites.
According to a new peer-reviewed report published in PLOS /One, if the current predictions of a 3 foot rise in seawater over the next century are true - the great state of Louisiana would lose an estimated 2,500 archaeologically significant sites to the sea. Even sadder, that may be a low estimate as some of the coastal areas haven't been surveyed, and not all Native American sites along the affected are have been taken into account yet. .The coast in 100 years would be about 3 miles further inland if this report is true.