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San Francisco's 58-Story Millennium Tower Seen Sinking From Space (sfgate.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from SFGate: Engineers in San Francisco have tunneled underground to try and understand the sinking of the 58-story Millennium Tower. Now comes an analysis from space. The European Space Agency has released detailed data from satellite imagery that shows the skyscraper in San Francisco's financial district is continuing to sink at a steady rate -- and perhaps faster than previously known. The luxury high-rise that opened its doors in 2009 has been dubbed the Leaning Tower of San Francisco. It has sunk about 16 inches into landfill and is tilting several inches to the northwest. Engineers have estimated the building is sinking at a rate of about 1-inch per year. The Sentinel-1 twin satellites show almost double that rate based on data collected from April 2015 to September 2016. The satellite data shows the Millennium Tower sunk 40 to 45 millimeters -- or 1.6 to 1.8 inches -- over a recent one-year period and almost double that amount -- 70 to 75 mm (2.6 to 2.9 inches) -- over its 17-month observation period, said Petar Marinkovic, founder and chief scientist of PPO Labs which analyzed the satellite's radar imagery for the ESA along with Norway-based research institute Norut. The Sentinel-1 study is not focused on the Millennium Tower but is part of a larger mission by the European Space Agency tracking urban ground movement around the world, and particularly subsidence "hotspots" in Europe, said Pierre Potin, Sentinel-1 mission manager for the ESA. The ESA decided to conduct regular observations of the San Francisco Bay Area, including the Hayward Fault, since it is prone to tectonic movement and earthquakes, said Potin, who is based in Italy. Data from the satellite, which is orbiting about 400 miles (700 kilometers) from the earth's surface, was recorded every 24 days. The building's developer, Millennium Partners, insists the building is safe for occupancy and could withstand an earthquake.

17 of 242 comments (clear)

  1. "safe and could withstand an earthquake" by ls671 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Millennium Partners, insists the building is safe for occupancy and could withstand an earthquake.

    fine prints: "As long as the earthquake tilts it straight and doesn't make it tilt more in the northwest direction"

    --
    Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
    1. Re:"safe and could withstand an earthquake" by guises · · Score: 4, Insightful

      No no, there's no condition there: "If the building isn't safe for occupancy, we'll lose a lot of money. Therefore, the building for safe for occupancy. Also earthquakes. Also dragons. Anything you want, safe."

    2. Re:"safe and could withstand an earthquake" by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The building itself might be able to withstand an earthquake, but the ground it's built on might not. In SF, that'd be a concern - especially since the very fact that the building sinks indicates that the ground underneath might be of the type that loses its strength when shaken.

      --
      "A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
  2. Re:CAGW by MSojka · · Score: 4, Funny

    ... until all of SF topples into the bay.

    And there will be much rejoicing.

    In honor of the great Bill Hicks, I propose we name the resulting scenic landscape Arizona Bay.

  3. Developers say it is safe? What about engineers? by wasted · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The building's developer, Millennium Partners, insists the building is safe for occupancy and could withstand an earthquake.

    In this context, I would guess "developer" is used similarly to "business development" which means sales. Personally, I would prefer an engineer to make a safety assessment rather than a developer in the assumed context, but I could be wrong about context. I didn't see Millennium Partners engineering firms on the first page of a Google search, though.

    Maybe they mean safe in a context similar to "perfectly safe" from Zaphod Plays It Safe.

  4. Re:The "Mil-Lean-eum" Tower by stealth_finger · · Score: 4, Insightful

    the name suits the millennial generation quite well: ambition, arrogance, but wilfully ignorant and/or unaccepting of reality/logic/math.

    If you have a problem with millennials, look to the people who raised them like that.

    --
    Wanna buy a shirt?
    https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
  5. Measuring from space by Melkman · · Score: 5, Informative

    Wow, mapping a buildings from space with millimeter accuracy. From an orbit 693km high. That's an accuracy of 1:100,000,000 while flying 24,000 km/h.. Crazy. And then imagine the capabilities of really good US satellites aren't even known because classified.

    The ESA link to this story: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Observing_the_Earth/Copernicus/Sentinel-1/Satellites_confirm_sinking_of_San_Francisco_tower

  6. Re:SF sinking further into hell by stealth_finger · · Score: 4, Funny

    Almost as if God is punishing them for something....

    Like the rampant drug use, loose morals and homosexuality perhaps?

    Nah, the smug.

    --
    Wanna buy a shirt?
    https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
  7. Re:The "Mil-Lean-eum" Tower by Maritz · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Your ignorant, ungenerous characterisation summarises your own neuroses beautifully. We accept the math alright, the math that you own everything because you got in there first, and your determination to vote in a fucked up world before you do the decent thing and die the fuck off. ;)

    --
    I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
  8. Re: Define Conundrum by 110010001000 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Well he just named a Goldman Sachs guy as Treasury Secretary. But yeah, Goldman Sachs is known for creating jobs and is anti-globalization. He is gonna be getting you a jerb REAL SOON now.

  9. Re:Pisa tower by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 5, Funny

    "When I first came here, this was all a landfill. Everyone said I was daft to build a tower on a landfill, but I built it all the same, just to show them. ..."

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  10. Re:Pisa tower by Yvan256 · · Score: 4, Funny

    "It sank into the landfill. So I built a second one."

  11. Re:The "Mil-Lean-eum" Tower by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    the name suits the millennial generation quite well: ambition, arrogance, but wilfully ignorant and/or unaccepting of reality/logic/math.

    If you have a problem with millennials, look to the people who raised them like that.

    And, as a millennial, I do not get this characterization at all. We have so much less than previous generations, and I'd be surprised if we complain more than they did. In addition, it's the older generations' lack of critical thinking that got us into so many messes like the drug war, a bunch of real wars, consolidation of media, and on and on.

  12. Re:Define Conundrum by Jzanu · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You mean Pence, Indiana governor, reached an agreement with a large employer in his state and offered them special incentives to stay? That is normal politics, and the only reason it was delayed until now was to serve as a talking point and trick idiots like you into giving Trump credit. See, the way this works is large employers know they are valuable and put pressure on state governments, city governments, etc. to get perks like 0% taxes, waving of pollution regulations, zoning exemptions, etc. Usually it hurts the people of the state/city long-term because the firms just make new threats as needed to keep the time-limited perks active, and environmental damage would directly harm workers and their families who do actually live nearby.

  13. Re:metric by GabeGhearing · · Score: 5, Informative

    It has sunk about 16 inches...

    errr, how many billion dollah landers are you going to smash into Mars before you start using the metric system? this is ridiculous.

    The USA hasn't crashed a Mars rover landing(there have been 4 so far)... I believe every lander Europe and Russia has sent to Mars has crashed https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

  14. He's broke, he has no money to lend by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This is false: "That does not make sense. Businesses are kept separate for a whole slew of legal and tax related reasons."

    No that's not true. He doesn't have money in any of these organizations to lend.

    Berkshire Hathaway is all internal loans. Each company within the group lends spare cash to other companies in the group at market rates, and thus earns the interest charged as profits, instead of that profit going to banks. Warren Buffet buys specifically insurance companies, because they're cash rich and can lend that cash to other companies in the group. Insurance premiums are paid up front, but liabilities on the premiums arrive later. Interest earned is kept within the group, simply returning to the Insurance company as profit. Rather than being paid out to a bank. That's what cash rich companies do.

    http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/03/08/how-warren-buffett-borrows-77-billion-for-free.aspx

    Currently Trump's companies shift revenue around. So investment money for one place, travels through the books as revenue in his other companies. Hence the 160% sudden increase in Miami National Doral revenue, without the corresponding increase in room rate or occupancy on that resort. That property is valued at $96 million, his lawyer says its only worth $75 million, yet it's borrowing is $125 million from Deutsch bank alone. A black hole of $50 million just comparing two different Trump company numbers and noticing the mismatch.

    Same with the loss making Scottish golf resort, which he claims is profitable in the US figures he gave for that UK business, and yet makes a loss in the UK figures filed at companies house. Again two different numbers for the same thing files in two different places.

    All of his businesses are like that. The mature New York buildings which should be debt free by now, are basically bankrupt. e.g. 40 Wall Street has $160 million mortgage, at 5.71 percent, i.e. $9.1 million mortgage and yet makes only $6.49 million profit. It doesn't make enough to service its debt.

  15. Re:Define Conundrum by Enigma2175 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Why not blame Trump for the 1100 jobs he sent to Mexico? Carrier was moving 2100 jobs and they only kept 1000 of them here, so they lost 1100 jobs. We still don't know what incentives Pence gave them for staying, but it's entirely possible that this will be a net loss in revenue for the government. Not that I think this move is necessarily a bad thing, well paying manufacturing jobs are great to have in the country and I'm glad they were able to get them to partially stay but 1000 jobs is really a drop in the bucket for an economy that is adding 180,000 jobs per month. It's a great talking point for the Trump administration but from a practical perspective these one-off efforts aren't going to have a big impact on the economy.

    --

    Enigma