subsidence

plural subsidences

1. countableuncountableThe process of becoming less active or severe.

   The subdual or subsidence of the more violent passions.

   1754, William Warburton, Sermon preached before the King, at Kensington, October 27, 1754

2. countableuncountablegeographyA sinking of something to a lower level, especially of part of the surface of the Earth due to underground excavation, seismic activity or underground or ground water depletion, or the rocks in a geological basin, due to continued deposition from above.

   In the early hours of April 28, 1953, it was completely blocked by a subsidence, which caused the death of five persons, when a pair of semi-detached houses collapsed into the cavity.

   1957 June 28, “Notes and News: Clifton Hill Tunnel, Swinton”, in Railway Magazine, page 433

   3 more examples

   Everyone knows that a main line running through a coalfield is prone to speed restrictions because of land subsidence. […] The rate of subsidence may vary from less than an inch a month in the case of a deep seam of coal, to as rapid a decline as 16in a month above a shallow seam. The effect of subsidence on permanent way and civil engineering structures needs no emphasis.

   1961 November, “Talking of Trains: The subsidence problem”, in Trains Illustrated, page 651

   Subsidence was first noted in the late nineteenth century. An increasing thirst for groundwater, which creates subterranean pockets that are then compressed by the land above, and upriver damming of the Mississippi, which prevents the replenishment of sediments, have undermined the city to the point that it is now thought to be subsiding by up to 12 millimetres per year.

   2020, David Farrier, “Thin Cities”, in Footprints, 4th Estate, →ISBN

   Iran’s president has claimed Iran has no choice but to move its capital from Tehran to the south of the country due to the city’s over-expansion, the lack of adequate water supplies and the growing threat of subsidence.

   2025 October 2, David Wintour, “Iran must move its capital from Tehran, says president as water crisis worsens”, in The Guardian, Guardian Media Group, →ISSN, →OCLC