Drought Conditions Cause Central Valley Homes To Sink Into The Ground

[KamaAina]

http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2015/06/29/drought-conditions-aquifer-el-nido-subsidence-cause-central-valley-homes-to-sink-into-the-ground/

Homes in a Central Valley neighborhood are the latest casualty of California’s historic drought. The parched, dry weather is causing them to literally sink into the ground....

“You could literally stand out by the sidewalk and look clear underneath the house to the back yard,” said contractor Gary Wake. “That’s how much the soil had shrunk under this house.”

More and more homes have begun to tilt, sink and crack in the neighborhood, and it has become clear that the reason lies underground. Drought conditions have made the earth beneath them so parched, it is affecting the aquifer, the underground layer of permeable, clay soil where water normally flows.

“We honestly believe that it has a lot to do with the drought, and the aquifer just being sucked out,” says Hall.

[Romeo.lima333]

1. that's the site of the future great american desert

[KamaAina]

2. The west side of the San Joaquin Valley was, in fact, marked as desert

on early maps of the region.

[Brother Buzz]

11. By definition, great parts of the western region of the San Joaquin valley are STILL a desert

Back in my school days, regions that received less than five inches of annual rainfall were classified desert. Today, ten inches is considered a desert. Large tracts of the western San Joaquin Valley sitting in the rain shadow of the coastal range receive a whopping eight inches of rain, that is, if it even rains.

[petronius]

3. And as the saturated clay layers subside, that's aquifer capacity that

is permanently lost (although I don't know how much groundwater storage clay contributes relative to sand and gravel; I think of clay as more of an aquitard than an aquifer ).

This older article from the Mercury News has a nice graphic and explanation...

[KamaAina]

4. You are correct.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquifer#Aquifers_versus_aquitards

Aquifers are typically saturated regions of the subsurface that produce an economically feasible quantity of water to a well or spring (e.g., sand and gravel or fractured bedrock often make good aquifer materials).

An aquitard is a zone within the earth that restricts the flow of groundwater from one aquifer to another. A completely impermeable aquitard is called an aquiclude or aquifuge. Aquitards comprise layers of either clay or non-porous rock with low hydraulic conductivity.

[antiquie]

5. "...and the aquifer just being sucked out”

From petronius' link:

An analysis by this newspaper shows a dramatic jump in well construction in seven San Joaquin Valley counties in 2013, with an even sharper increase this year {2014 March} as Gov. Jerry Brown declared a drought emergency:

• In the first month and a half of this year, Fresno County issued 124 new well permits, and Tulare County approved 182 -- a pace that is triple and double, respectively, the previous year.
• In Kern County, cotton king J.C. Boswell Farms drilled five ultra-deep 2,500-foot wells last year. Each one is as deep as two Empire State Buildings, stacked underground.
• A Chowchilla-based farm in Madera County has ordered 25 new wells for construction this year; a drill rig is likely to stay on that property all year.
• Stanislaus County issued nearly 150 drilling permits, with 100 for large wells, in fall 2013 -- compared with 35 well permits issued in fall 2012, with four large wells.

[KamaAina]

6. I will never understand why cotton is grown in places like Kern County

and Arizona. What's wrong with the South?

[antiquie]

7. Take chowchillas elsewhere, too. (Nevermind)

[KamaAina]

8. ???

The town in the Central Valley? Or the Australian bird?

[antiquie]

9. I wondered if people eat chowchillas --

My spouse wondered if I meant chinchillas.
My eyes saw one thing, my brain another.
(You all will be old one day, too. )

[KamaAina]

10. Are chinchillas particularly thirsty?

Are they raised in the Central Valley?