– Warming seas and excavations within the Venice lagoon mean the exceptionally high flood waters in the city this week are also saltier, posing an extra threat to its architectural treasures.
“With the salt water everything becomes more difficult for us,” Mayor Luigi Brugnaro said on Friday as a fresh inundation left 70% of Venice submerged just three days after it suffered the worst floods in more than 50 years. More recently, moon-shaped piers built to protect the gaps of the Venice lagoon were reckoned by the scientists of the National Center for Research to have created big depressions in the sea bed, which would also allow more sea water in.
The main concern centers on Venice’s Byzantine St. Mark’s Basilica, with its ancient mosaics and marble columns, which are especially fragile.