• Email Us: [email protected]
  • Contact Us: +1 718 874 1545
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Medical Market Report

  • Home
  • All Reports
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

Mexico Earthquake Sets Off Desert Tsunami In Death Valley Cave Containing World’s Rarest Fish

September 26, 2022 by Deborah Bloomfield

Last week, Mexico experienced a major earthquake that killed at least two people. Given its 7.6 magnitude, there were fears the death toll could be considerably larger. Being on land, the quake did not cause a tsunami in the ocean. However, it triggered what has been termed a “desert tsunami” in the Devil’s Hole pool, Death Valley – 1,500 kilometers (932 miles) from the quake’s epicenter.

The Devil’s Hole is remarkable in several ways. Located in possibly the hottest place on Earth, finding any water there is impressive. Yet the small pool not only lasts through years without rain and competition for groundwater, it supports the Devil’s Hole pupfish (Cyprinodon diabolis). The fish, with the most restricted range of any vertebrate, have survived in isolation in water half the length of an Olympic pool and a single lane wide since the local climate dried out 10,000 years ago.

Advertisement

Being only 22 meters (72 feet) long, the pool isn’t the sort of place one would expect big waves. However, its size and great depth make it well suited to seiches, a type of standing wave. The speed with which water traverses the pool and its length means waves bounce off walls in time to constructively interfere with each other, causing the wave height to build. It’s similar to the way sound waves make a resonant frequency in a wind instrument of suitable length.

“The pupfish have survived several of these events in recent years,” said Kevin Wilson, National Park Service aquatic ecologist in a statement. “We didn’t find any dead fish after the waves stopped.”

One of those observing the seiche in the video below comments she has never seen waves this big in the pool. However, in 2019, a magnitude 7.1 quake just over the California-Nevada border produced wave heights of 3-5 meters. For the pupfish, the short-term experience might have been alarming, but the longer-term consequences could be worse.

Advertisement

The pupfish rely on algae growing on a shallow shelf of the pool for food, and the wave action and stirred sediment removed much of this. With fish numbers having risen from 35 nine years ago to 175 at the last census, any drop in the food supply could have serious consequences. At least the shaking should have temporarily addressed the water’s low oxygen levels, which may be why unseasonal spawning events often follow seiches.

The fact the hole was shaken by a quake almost a thousand miles away is impressive enough, the Parks Service Website reports seiches have previously been associated with quakes as far afield as Japan, Indonesia, and Chile.

Seiches can be caused by storms on lakes or bays, and recently attracted attention as the explanation for events in what was then America’s inland sea on the day the dinosaurs died.

Deborah Bloomfield
Deborah Bloomfield

Related posts:

  1. China reports 73 new coronavirus cases for Sept 14 vs 92 day earlier
  2. Nine Hong Kong activists get 6-10 months in prison for unauthorised Tiananmen vigil
  3. Alexa’s new features will let users personalize the A.I. to their own needs
  4. Evergrande creditors fear imminent default as concerns shake sector

Source Link: Mexico Earthquake Sets Off Desert Tsunami In Death Valley Cave Containing World’s Rarest Fish

Filed Under: News

Primary Sidebar

  • There Are 2-Billion-Year-Old “Millennium Rocks” In A Suburb, Hundreds Of Miles From Their Primeval Home
  • “That’s A Hellfire Missile Smacking Into That UFO”: Strange Video Emerges From US UAP Hearing
  • In 40,000 Years, Voyager 1 Will Have A Close Encounter With Gliese 445
  • Abnormally Long Gamma Ray Burst Unlike Anything We’ve Seen Before Baffles Astronomers
  • Critically Endangered Shark Meat Is Being Sold In US Stores For As Little As $2.99
  • Infectious Mouth Bacteria Lurking In Artery Plaques Could Be Behind Some Heart Attacks
  • What Would You Reach If You Kept Digging Under Antarctica?
  • First Visible Time Crystals Ever Made Have Astonishing Complexity And Practical Potential
  • “Something Undeniably Special”: The Chi Cygnids, A New Five-Yearly Meteor Shower, Peak This Month
  • A 200-Meter-Tall Event We Didn’t See Sent Signals Through The Earth For Nine Whole Days
  • Why Are So Many Volcanoes Underwater?
  • In 1977, A Hybrid Was Born In A Zoo. What It Taught Us Could Save One Of The Planet’s Most Endangered Species
  • How To Park A Dangerous Asteroid So It Doesn’t Bite You Later
  • New Study Finds Evidence For What Every Parent Knows About Bluey
  • New Breakthrough Takes Plastic Garbage And Turns It Into Tool For Carbon Capture
  • NASA To Hold Press Conference About New Perseverance Rover Discovery Tomorrow
  • Strange Halos Have Formed Around Barrels Of Chemicals Dumped Off LA’s Coast Over 50 Years Ago
  • As We Grow Older, Our Music Taste Appears To Narrow To Fewer Songs
  • Stinky Seaweed Blob On Florida Beaches Thwarts Baby Sea Turtles’ Dash To The Ocean
  • NASA Is Set To Lock Up Four Volunteers For 378-Day Mars Simulation Study
  • Business
  • Health
  • News
  • Science
  • Technology
  • +1 718 874 1545
  • +91 78878 22626
  • [email protected]
Office Address
Prudour Pvt. Ltd. 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300 New York City, NY 10170.

Powered by Prudour Network

Copyrights © 2025 · Medical Market Report. All Rights Reserved.

Go to mobile version