Winter Rains And Groundwater Depletion Change Height Of Sierra Nevada Mountains
Wednesday, May 14, 2014 - 15:31
in Earth & Climate
Can using a well move a mountain? It will if the well is big enough. Winter rains and summer groundwater pumping in California's Central Valley make the Sierra Nevada and Coast Mountain Ranges sink and rise. How much? A few millimeters each year. That doesn't sound like a lot but it creaes stress on the state's faults that could increase the risk of an earthquake. Gradual depletion of the Central Valley aquifer due to groundwater pumping also raises these mountain ranges by a similar amount - about the thickness of a dime - each year, according to a new paper in Nature. That cumulative rise over the past 150 years could be up to 6 inches, according to calculations by the geophysicists. read more