63 trillion = 63,000,000,000,000http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-63-trillion-gallons-of-groundwater-lost-in-drought-study-finds-20140821-story.html
By Rong-Gong Lin II
Aug. 21, 2014
he ongoing drought in the western United States has caused so much loss of groundwater that the Earth, on average, has lifted up about 0.16 inches over the last 18 months, according to a new study.
The situation was even worse in the snow-starved mountains of California, where the Earth rose up to 0.6 inches.
Researchers from UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the U.S. Geological Survey estimated the groundwater loss from the start of 2013 to be 63 trillion gallons — the equivalent of flooding four inches of water across the United States west of the Rocky Mountains.
The study, published online Thursday by the journal Science, offers a grim accounting of the drought’s toll.
•••••
Groundwater is very heavy, and its weight depresses the Earth's upper crust. Remove the weight, and the crust springs upward — and GPS sensors can detect how much higher the land has risen as a result of loss of groundwater.
•••••
According to the study, data showed the period of land lifting up as beginning in 2013, and continues to this day.
No comments:
Post a Comment