From ScienceAlert, September 12:
The United States has been pumping so much groundwater that the ground is beginning to split open across southwestern parts of the country for miles on end.
These giant cracks, aka fissures, have been spotted in states including Arizona, Utah, and California.
Groundwater is one of the main sources of freshwater on Earth – it provides almost half of all drinking water, and about 40% of global irrigation.
But humans are pumping groundwater faster than Earth can naturally replenish it.
When too much groundwater gets pumped up from the natural aquifers below the surface, it causes the land to sag and create these cracks, Joseph Cook, who researches Earth fissures at the Arizona Geological Survey, told Insider.
The fissures "are not a naturally occurring thing," Cook said. "It's something we've caused to form."....
....MUCH MORE
In fact people are depleting aquifers at such a rate that the H₂O that moves through the water cycle actually ends up in the oceans, raising sea levels. Not huge but measurable.
From the U.S. Geological Survey:
...Estimated global groundwater depletion during 1900–2008 totals ~4,500 km3, equivalent to a sea-level rise of 12.6 mm (>6% of the total). Furthermore, the rate of groundwater depletion has increased markedly since about 1950, with maximum rates occurring during the most recent period (2000–2008), when it averaged ~145 km3/yr (equivalent to 0.40 mm/yr of sea-level rise, or 13% of the reported rate of 3.1 mm/yr during this recent period)....
