Study says irrigation can stress San Andreas Fault

LOS ANGELES — Excessive groundwater pumping for irrigation in California’s agricultural belt can stress the San Andreas Fault, potentially increasing the risk of future small earthquakes, a new study suggests.

GPS readings found parts of the San Joaquin Valley floor have been sinking for decades through groundwater depletion while the surrounding mountains are being uplifted. This motion produces slight stress changes on the San Andreas and neighboring faults.

“The magnitude of these stress changes is exceedingly small compared to the stresses relieved during a large earthquake,” lead researcher Colin Amos, a geologist at Western Washington University, said in an email.

The findings were released Wednesday by the journal Nature.

The study suggests that human activities “can cause significant unclamping of the nearby San Andreas Fault system” through flexing of the Earth’s crust and upper mantle

Study says irrigation can stress San Andreas Fault

Karma? nothing we do is without consequence now we eat from that activity (I guess the crops are for wine and other not so basic needs), but by doing so we may doom ourselves? if we stop doing it will we die from hunger or ruin the economy of one of the most prosper places in the world?

It doesn't matter anyways one way or another the irrigation will stop, is not like the water that its taken can be replaced, some day it will run out and our current bubble will burst. Most crops in the world are irrigated from this kind of subterranean reservoirs we cannot feed 7b now what will happen when it runs out (just a lill doom porn inside the doom porn as in reality most crops dont come from underground reservoirs)

In my opinion this study is irrelevant, the water is needed, and earthquakes will occur with or without human intervention, obviously I live far far from there so perhaps someone that could be affected may have a different say.

a reply to: Indigent

I dont know .... I think it might be preferable to trigger more frequent smaller earthquakes than less frequent larger quakes. The energy in the fault is always building, better to relieve it often and in small doses.

a reply to: Indigent

Um... You may want to take a look at the San Joaquin Valley/Central Valley of CA and you will see just how much actual food for the entire country is grown here... I don't know where you're from but if you live in the US and shop at a grocery store your wallet will be feeling the effects of the drought we've had.

I myself spent 4 hours in the wee hours of the morning today irrigating my own property. Much of the irrigation comes from winter run off not ground water which is why we're having water management issues. The real ground water problems at least in my area are thanks to ranches raising livestock and drilling multiple mega wells to water their outfit which is causing their neighbors house wells to go dry.

If you want to point fingers then I suggest Southern California. They're a major drain on our water resources.

I don't believe this for one minute. There are other studies that if you plant fauna, vegetation, trees and build up nature, you can reclaim areas, that climate actually changes, long term climate, drawing in more rainfall, rather than weather, day by day.

Its very important to water and create oasis's, and food production for life both human and animal.

And it increases O2.

The very same water, enriches the water table and it draws in more from increased rain over time.

Not true their nonsense.

Their water wars and trying to create scarsity and water ownership, they're going to be arrested and dealt with if they keep pushing this.

NOT ON MY WATCH!!!!

a reply to: Unity_99

If you remove water you create a void, what is a lie in that?

a reply to: Indigent

Underwater streams spring out to water the surface, and they can be tapped. Planets produce water, and its renewable.

The land needs to be cared for and managed with irrigation ie oasis's of flourishing growth and food production and fauna for birds and nature. This impacts the climate very nicely. Water is also not only renewable but it can be recycled. Homes can have grey water recycling installed. All in all, the concept of scorched earth that the dark hats want is the worst one there is in the cosmos.

It destroys life and habitat.

Also, they are attempting to own the resource itself.

They're companies and businesses and fracking oil practices are the real culprits here.

news.nationalgeographic.com...

Inner Earth May Hold More Water Than the Seas

Based on what they witnessed in their lab, the researchers concluded that more water probably exists deep within the Earth than is present on Earth's surface—as much as five times more.

"Our results suggest that the lower mantle can potentially store considerable amounts of water," said Motohiko Murakami of the Tokyo Institute of Technology, where the experiments were conducted.

"The presence of water in the crystal structure of [deep-Earth] minerals would be expected to soften the minerals and change their flow behavior," he added. That, in turn, could affect how the innards of the planet mix and shift over time, and could indirectly affect conditions and forces near the surface, such as plate tectonics.

www.fortwhyte.org...

Plant Trees For Climate Change.

permaculture-and-sanity.com...

Trees Humidify Air

Among plants, trees are by far the most effective evapo-transpirers. Complementing oceans, trees form the other half of the planet-wide system known as the rain or water cycle. A typical tree breathes out 250 to 400 or more gallons of water per day through the amazingly large surface area of its leaves (an acre of forest can contain well over 1,000 acres of leaf surface area).

It's almost impossible to overstate trees' ability to humidify air and thereby maintain the rain cycle far from oceans. While some rainfall evaporates directly from the ground and from small plants (this can amount to most of a light rain), evapotranspiration by trees accounts for the great majority of inland rain. ...


No Trees, No Rain

They're putting out misleading data to own the water and create deadzones, ie the agricultural areas.

And if that is not enough, to take away ranches for turtles, rattlesnakes, little mice, etc.

They tried that here in the Okanagan, bring in a federal park and the people rose up and said no. They've farmed this area for over 100 years, its the best in Canada, this semi desert.

Then our premiere said he didn't think it would go over here, so wasn't going to push this, and a small group cried out, its only the selfish ones who want to use snow mobiles and quads that are ruining our chance to preserve the desert and rattlesnake.

And the farmers countered, no, they don't want the ranchers being told they can't let their cattle graze. This is all about control and penalizing farms. And they work the land for over 100 years and have the right to recreation on it, free of charge.

Its like an all out attack on farms, agriculture, irrigation, water rights.....

So now Fortis is wanting to misdirect in my opinion on of the natural rivers left, the smilkameen known for its beauty, that is giving water to the entire area, into a huge over 600 foot dam, in a farming area that is organic for the most part.

Also, in mountains that are crumpling with slide risks at that, with major highway from the coast to the southern interior of Canada, being shut down, because of slides and bolders.

Its one attack after another, and feeding out BS where science is not science anymore but moutpieces of the agenda.

They really want to destroy everything.

a reply to: Indigent

Roughly a third of the nation's agricultural products are grown in the San Joaquin valley. Everything from tomatoes to melons to strawberries to garlic. Almonds, peaches, peppers, broccoli, artichokes, sweet potatoes, grapes (for wine and raisins and just plain eating). Not to mention cotton, rice, alfalfa...

I could go on, but you get the picture. And right now there are thousands of acres NOT under cultivation because of the drought...although the water is flowing to Southern California to feed the cities and water lawns and fill swimming pools.

Would you rather play Marco Polo with the neighborhood peeps and have a fabulous front yard, or eat???