A large and extremely famous state of the world – California – may disappear in the future just because of human actions.
California is a famous American state with great beauty of nature and people, along with a coastline stretching over 1,000km.
However, according to the latest research from Cornell University (USA), California is on the verge of being completely submerged . Believe it or not, within a year, the central part of California has sunk up to 0.5m.
Why is that?
You know, this is a serious consequence of prolonged drought and depletion of groundwater .
Specifically, the researchers observed and analyzed satellite images of groundwater in central California. Between 1962 and 2011, they found, each year the groundwater in the Tulare basin (California) decreased by about 2 cubic kilometers of water. Most seriously, since 2012-2016, this number has increased to 42km 3 . This is an alarming number!
Flooding occurred in many parts of California.
In particular, throughout 2017, the increasingly scarce groundwater level caused continuous subsidence in many places. Many roads are cracked everywhere, creating potholes and deep holes.
In addition, once the ground is too subsided, it will seriously affect the drainage system, making the city prone to flooding.
The question continues to be: Why is groundwater here so scarce?
Over the past century, about 80% of groundwater has been used for agricultural purposes. In order to increase crop yields, farmers have exploited groundwater resources beyond the allowable limit. They dug their own wells with too dense density, negatively affecting groundwater and also weakening the ground.
In addition, if normally after heavy rains and snowfalls, groundwater will be more abundant. But the irony is that since 2011, prolonged droughts have prevented this from happening, and caused the groundwater to be increasingly depleted.
Subsidence has reappeared and is more severe in California.
Dr. Kyle Murray, the study’s author, expressed concern : “Califorans expect major storms in early 2017 to bring the drought to an end. However, by early summer this year, the situation was not. subsidence reappeared and became more severe.
More seriously, Dr. Rowena Lohman , co-author, said: “We discovered that one of the main water pipes here was completely broken and could no longer supply water. This was the storm. giant nightmare for agriculture”
Prolonged drought causes the groundwater to be increasingly depleted.
And if these droughts continue, things could get worse….
Therefore, Dr. Lohman warned authorities and Californians to rationally and economically use groundwater to prevent future catastrophic disasters.