Pacific NW News Service
Severe drought is causing the western US to rise like a spring uncoiling
Date:
August 21, 2014
Source:
University of California - San Diego
Summary:
The severe drought gripping the western United States in recent years is changing the landscape well beyond localized effects of water restrictions and browning lawns. Scientists have used GPS data to discover that the growing, broad-scale loss of water is causing the entire western US to rise up like an uncoiled spring.
Date:
August 21, 2014
Source:
University of California - San Diego
Summary:
The severe drought gripping the western United States in recent years is changing the landscape well beyond localized effects of water restrictions and browning lawns. Scientists have used GPS data to discover that the growing, broad-scale loss of water is causing the entire western US to rise up like an uncoiled spring.
The severe drought gripping the western United States in recent years is changing the landscape well beyond localized effects of water restrictions and browning lawns. Scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego have now discovered that the growing, broad-scale loss of water is causing the entire western U.S. to rise up like an uncoiled spring.
Investigating ground positioning data from GPS stations throughout the west, Scripps researchers Adrian Borsa, Duncan Agnew, and Dan Cayan found that the water shortage is causing an "uplift" effect up to 15 millimeters (more than half an inch) in California's mountains and on average four millimeters (0.15 of an inch) across the west. From the GPS data, they estimate the water deficit at nearly 240 gigatons (62 trillion gallons of water), equivalent to a six-inch layer of water spread out over the entire western U.S.
Adrian Borsa, an assistant research geophysicist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego.
Results of the study, which was supported by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), appear in the August 21 online edition of the journal Science.
While poring through various sets of data of ground positions from highly precise GPS stations within the National Science Foundation's Plate Boundary Observatory and other networks, Borsa, a Scripps assistant research geophysicist, kept noticing the same pattern over the 2003-2014 period: All of the stations moved upwards in the most recent years, coinciding with the timing of the current drought.
Investigating ground positioning data from GPS stations throughout the west, Scripps researchers Adrian Borsa, Duncan Agnew, and Dan Cayan found that the water shortage is causing an "uplift" effect up to 15 millimeters (more than half an inch) in California's mountains and on average four millimeters (0.15 of an inch) across the west. From the GPS data, they estimate the water deficit at nearly 240 gigatons (62 trillion gallons of water), equivalent to a six-inch layer of water spread out over the entire western U.S.
Adrian Borsa, an assistant research geophysicist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego.
Results of the study, which was supported by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), appear in the August 21 online edition of the journal Science.
While poring through various sets of data of ground positions from highly precise GPS stations within the National Science Foundation's Plate Boundary Observatory and other networks, Borsa, a Scripps assistant research geophysicist, kept noticing the same pattern over the 2003-2014 period: All of the stations moved upwards in the most recent years, coinciding with the timing of the current drought.
The first game of the year
EWU in Roos Field and Jane has the first shirt.
EWU in Roos Field and Jane has the first shirt.
bobshannon.org
Agnew, a Scripps Oceanography geophysics professor who specializes in studying earthquakes and their impact on shaping Earth's crust, says the GPS data can only be explained by rapid uplift of the tectonic plate upon which the western U.S. rests (Agnew cautions that the uplift has virtually no effect on the San Andreas fault and therefore does not increase the risk of earthquakes).
For Cayan, a research meteorologist with Scripps and USGS, the results paint a new picture of the dire hydrological state of the west.
"These results quantify the amount of water mass lost in the past few years," said Cayan. "It also represents a powerful new way to track water resources over a very large landscape. We can home in on the Sierra Nevada mountains and critical California snowpack. These results demonstrate that this technique can be used to study changes in fresh water stocks in other regions around the world, if they have a network of GPS sensors."
Columbia Plateau Rail Trail S of Cheney Plaza RD
O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer you my prayers, works, joys, and sufferings of this day for all the intentions of your Sacred Heart, in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world, for the salvation of souls, the reparation of sins, the reunion of all Christians, and in particular for the intentions of the Holy Father this month. Amen.
If ISIS is as we are told, the these words would fit...
O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer you my prayers, works, joys, and sufferings of this day for all the intentions of your Sacred Heart, in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world, for the salvation of souls, the reparation of sins, the reunion of all Christians, and in particular for the intentions of the Holy Father this month. Amen.
A large earthquake rolled through California's northern Bay Area early Sunday, damaging some buildings, knocking out power to thousands and sending residents running out of their homes in the darkness.
The extent of the damage wasn't immediately clear. Two
major injuries have been reported, and hospitals have been very busy
with moderate injuries, Napa Division Fire Chief John Callanan said.
The 6.0 magnitude earthquake struck just before 3:30 a.m. about 10
miles northwest of American Canyon, which is about 6 miles southwest of
Napa, in California wine country, Leslie Gordon of the U.S. Geological
Survey said. It's the largest earthquake to shake the Bay Area since
the 6.9 magnitude Loma Prieta quake in 1989, the USGS said.
I am sorry to say that I have been too busy on other projects to note any feelings prior to the quake. Late yesterday we had a small but expensive accident in our small apartment. I hit my wife's walker with my electric scooter. The walker was old and severed right away. Due to the importance of her scooter, I had to have my sister in law take me out to buy a new scooter. Then with little of the days energy left. I completed my occupational therapy for the month and put the newer one together, pain worked in a positive way and I had to wrestle with the devil not to take Gods name in name at my run of bad luck and his 100% bad timing. If one has patience, God will win which is specifically why St Michael is my Guardian Angel. Even though things might go bad, I trust Blessed Mary and Archangel St Michel.
No comments:
Post a Comment