Tag: subsidence
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NASA-Led Study Pinpoints Areas of New York City Sinking, Rising
Photo: The land beneath the New York City area, including the borough of Queens, pictured here, is moving by fractions of inches each year. The motions are a legacy of the ice age and also due to human land usage. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Scientists using space-based radar found that land in New York City is sinking…
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The US has pumped so much groundwater that it’s literally splitting the ground open across the American Southwest
Photo: A fissure tears open earth and roots in North Sulphur Springs Valley, Arizona. Joesph Cook/AZGS The United States has been pumping so much groundwater that the ground is beginning to split open across southwestern parts of the country for miles on end. These giant cracks, aka fissures, have been spotted in states including Arizona, Utah, and California. Groundwater…
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California’s Central Valley was a landscape of lakes and marshes…
Art: An artist’s 19th century depiction of Tulare Lake, now vanished. (Tulare County Library) …then we sucked it dry. Fly above California’s Central Valley and a vast earth-toned checkerboard spreads out below. The fertile plain — as big as Tennessee and bathed in sunlight 300 days a year — yields a third of the produce…
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Feds say Tule groundwater could continue to sink
Despite groundwater sustainability plans, Bureau of Reclamation says capacity of Friant-Kern Canal could fall by another 10% in the coming years; impact could be felt by rural communities as well TULARE COUNTY – Without the construction of the 152-mile Friant-Kern Canal in 1951 at the cost of $61 million, many of the best producing ag…
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Sinking Lands, Damaged Infrastructure: Will Better Groundwater Management End Subsidence?
In the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, work continues on managing groundwater for long-term sustainability, as required by California’s landmark Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA). In January, water users in 21 critically overdrafted basins delivered their groundwater sustainability plans to the state Department of Water Resources. In this series , we examine the 36 plans…
