2 mile wide crack in Arizona

[JayF]

http://buff.ly/2kStGlC

Sent from my VS987 using TalkWeather mobile app

 

[WesL]

Is this the start of the new Pacific coastline?

 

[Kory]

Is this the start of the new Pacific coastline?

It is a result of subsidence from aquifer drawdown. Overuse of pumping wells for water over a long period has finally manifested itself. One you get subsidence from compaction of sediments, you lose that pore space, you ain't getting it back. And because the overlying sediment is so brittle, it just cracks as it's readjusting....

 

[JayF]

Is this the start of the new Pacific coastline?

It could be the start of the West Coast become the Former West Coast. New Continental Drift?

 

[Kory]

On the topic of over-pumping aquifers, here's a picture from California. This is a HUGE problem there and in the Plains with the Ogallala Aquifer, where drawdown (not subsidence) has been nearly 300 feet. The intense agriculture only makes it worse....since infiltration into the aquifer is from the surface and those rates are extremely low due to overworked soils.

 

[Kory]

It could be the start of the West Coast become the Former West Coast. New Continental Drift?

We don't have any rift zones in the United States. However, we do have a transform fault (San Andres) that runs through California. That is a right moving fault, which means the land on the West side of the fault is sliding toward the Pacific. That would be the only "new" Pacific Coast as rate of sliding is 2" a year. Don't expect any new coast in our life time!

 

[JayF]

We don't have any rift zones in the United States. However, we do have a transform fault (San Andres) that runs through California. That is a right moving fault, which means the land on the West side of the fault is sliding toward the Pacific. That would be the only "new" Pacific Coast as rate of sliding is 2" a year. Don't expect any new coast in our life time!

Yeah I understand that. My comment was supposed to be funny.

 

[WesL]

 

[JayF]

LOL