California earthquakes are felt more than 500 miles away in Devils Hole

On By Littum

game

The effects of a magnitude 7.0 earthquake that struck California last week stretched more than 500 miles from the epicenter near the city of Petrolia to Devil hole in Death Valley National Park, home to the endangered Devils Hole Pupfish said the National Park Service (NPS)..

With no other natural habitat and a population in the low 200s, the disturbance of the pupfish could spell trouble.

“Devils Hole in Death Valley National Park was shaken by an earthquake that occurred in Northern California on December 5,” the agency said in a news release Thursday. “Scientists Still Assessing Potential Impacts on the Endangered Devils Hole Pupfish.”

Just two minutes after the earthquake struck off the coast of Northern California at At 10:44 a.m. local time on Dec. 5, “the water began to slosh in the Devils Hole,” the NPS said, explaining that the water in the pool is normally still as it is sheltered from the wind at the bottom of a collapsed cave.

The infrequent waves disturbed the shallow shelf that serves as the Devils Hole Pupfish’s main spawning or reproductive area and “swept most organic material from the shelf into the cave, which is over 500 feet deep,” the NPS said. Scientists estimated the waves, technically known as a “seiche”, to be almost two meters high.

“In the short term, this is bad for the pupfish,” said NPS biologist Dr. Kevin Wilson in Thursday’s statement. “A lot of pupfish food just sank deeper into the cave, most likely too deep for the fish to get to. There were probably pupfish eggs on the shelf that were destroyed.”

However, it is not entirely gloomy, said Dr. Wilson, explaining that this type of reset may be beneficial to the pupfish in the long run, as it may have “cleaned out any decaying organic matter that might otherwise cause pockets of low oxygen.”

The critically endangered Devils Hole pupfish has previously survived seiches, most recently in 2018, 2019 and 2022said the NPS. The fish compensate by increasing spawning activity.

Biologists work to protect fish

However, the NPS is still concerned about the survival of this pup species, which has no other natural habitat. In September, approximately 212 pupfish were documented in Devils Hole.

Biologists with the NPS, the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the Nevada Department of Wildlife are “evaluating how to mitigate the disturbance to the fish, which is also affected by groundwater pumping and climate change,” the NPS said. The plans are likely to include increased supplemental food supply for the fish, which typically feed on algae, invertebrates and other microorganisms found on a shallow rock shelf in the pool.

Located within Ash Meadows National Wildlife RefugeDevils Hole is a biodiverse, spring-fed oasis in southern Nevada. The water-filled, geothermal cave system is the only natural habitat for the critically endangered Devils Hole pupfish, according to the NPS.

Saman Shafiq is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at [email protected] and follow her on X and Instagram @saman_shafiq7.