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Allfunandgaymes t1_jaceqxe wrote

Where cities are built on wetlands or above shallow aquifers (which historically accounts for a LOT of cities, for ease of access to water), the answer is subsidence. Soil acts like quicksand to buildings over long periods of time, if it is saturated with water. Chicago is a good modern example of this.

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JMKPOhio t1_jacplal wrote

By extension, does this mean that we might be able to uncover, for example, an Ancient Greek papyri cache with many of our lost plays and poems?

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crazynerd9 t1_jad78p1 wrote

Yes and this sort of thing does happen, however it grows more and more unlikely as we find and excavate what remains of sites that could hold such relics.

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SumgaisPens t1_jad7pev wrote

We might recover more, but it’s much less likely that paper and other organic materials survive in areas of high moisture, like wetlands or aquifers, unless they are low oxygen environments, like bogs.

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