The land on which our nation’s capital sits — the home of iconic sites like the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument — is sinking quickly into the sea and could fall by as much as 6 inches by the end of the century, according to a new study.

Published this week in the scientific journal GSA Today, the by scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey, the University of Vermont and others says that the Chesapeake Bay region, in which Washington, D.C. lies, is experiencing sea-level rise faster than anywhere else on the U.S. Atlantic coast.

D.C. is experiencing sea level rise faster than anywhere else on the U.S. Atlantic coast, according to the study. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

“This falling land will from rising ocean waters due to a warming climate and melting ice sheets— accelerating the threat to the region’s monuments, roads, wildlife refuges and military installations,” said the scientists who conducted the study in a news release.

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Why is the land sinking in D.C. so much faster than anywhere else along the East Coast? Two primary factors are at play: subsidence, the result of the land naturally settling after the retreat of a prehistoric ice sheet some 20,000 years ago; and sea-level rise, which is occuring worldwide at a rate of about 1.7 millimeters each year (and at twice that rate in the Chesapeake Bay region).

To confirm their hypothesis, the scientists who conducted the study did extensive drilling in the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge on Maryland’s coastal plain, many as deep as 100 feet down. Next, they “ in these deep cores, using a suite of techniques to calculate the age of the sand, other rocks and organic matter in each layer.”

Combining that data with high-resolution GPS maps, they created a three-dimensional portrait of the current and past glacial periods that stretch back several million years. This gave the scientists confidence that their model is “bullet-proof,” said Brad DeJong, the report’s lead author, who added that we’re only at the beginning of long period of sinking for the region that will “last for millennia,” the scientists said in .

“Right now is the time to start making preparations,” DeJong said in a released by the University of Vermont, adding that the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts that global sea levels will rise by anywhere from 1 to 3 feet by the end of the century due to global warming alone.

“Six extra inches of water really matters in this part of the world,” he said.

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Thai mahouts ride their elephants through the flooded streets October 10, 2011 in Ayutthaya, Thailand, near Bangkok. (Paula Bronstein /Getty Images)