[Scpg] Satellites show huge groundwater loss in California

[LBUZZELL at aol.com]

_http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2009/12/16/gravity-satellites-sho
w-a-huge-groundwater-loss-in-california/_ 
(http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2009/12/16/gravity-satellites-show-a-huge-groundwater-loss-in-calif
ornia/)    
 
_Gravity Satellites Show a Huge Groundwater Loss in  California_ 
(http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2009/12/16/gravity-satellites-show-a-huge-gr
oundwater-loss-in-california/) 

 
Groundwater  levels around the country _have been sinking_ 
(http://waterquality.ifas.ufl.edu/Water%20primer/Underground%20water/Underground.htm#Groundwa
ter%204)  as wells for drinking water and  irrigation pull water out of 
aquifers faster than they can naturally recharge.  Now, using gravity-measuring 
satellites, NASA and California researchers have_documented the extent_ 
(http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091214152022.htm)  of water loss 
in California’s  Central Valley, and the results aren’t good. 
The measurements show the amount of water lost in  the two main Central 
Valley river basins within the past six years could almost  fill the nation’s 
largest reservoir, Lake Mead in Nevada [_AP_ 
(http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iEgbfK-95TbTXxCfVNqQNG5H1k9AD9CJDQTO0) ]. The total is 
about 30 cubic kilometer; one cubic km  contains more than 264 billion gallons 
of water. 
The team used the _GRACE satellites_ (http://grace.jpl.nasa.gov/)  to  
measure tiny fluctuations in the planet’s gravitational field. Researchers often 
 use them to track _changes in ice sheets_ 
(http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2009/11/26/is-the-once-stable-part-of-antarctica-starting-to-melt/
) , but this turning these orbiters on  California allowed them to see the 
how much the pull on the planet had lessened  there, and thus how much water 
had been lost from the ground. 
 
The satellites can detect changes in the amount of  water in a region but 
not how much is left. Regardless of how much water remains  in the aquifer, 
the researchers note that a declining water table will degrade  water quality 
and will eventually force Californians to drill deeper wells [_Science 
News_ 
(http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/50827/title/Irrigation_draining_California_groundwater_at_unsustainable__pace) ]. That’s bad news not just 
for  Californians: _the Central Valley_ 
(http://www.npr.org/programs/atc/features/2002/nov/central_valley/)  accounts for an estimated one-twelfth  of 
the nation’s agricultural production. 
“The numbers we’re getting out of this analysis  point to groundwater use 
at unsustainable rates,” said Professor Jay Famiglietti  of the University 
of California, Irvine. “It’s leading to declining water  tables, decreased 
crop sizes, and continued land subsidence – something that has  been going on 
in the Central Valley for decades” [_BBC  News_ 
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8414252.stm) ].

 
 
 
 
 
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Thanks to George Vye for this info






“When all the trees have been cut down, when all the animals have been  
hunted, when all the waters are polluted, when all the air is unsafe to 
breathe,  only then will you discover you cannot eat money.”           
~ Cree prophecy








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