How an earthquake in Alaska made a wave of water in Death Valley 89.3 KPCC The height of the water rises and falls in a sort of flushing motion, as can be seen in this video following a 7.3 magnitude earthquake in Oaxaca, Mexico. "These waves impact a shelf that's a big boulder that fell into Devil's Hole tens of thousands of years ago. It's anywhere from six inches to two and a half ... How an earthquake in Alaska made a wave of water in Death Valley - 89.3 KPCC

How an earthquake in Alaska made a wave of water in Death Valley 89.3 KPCC The height of the water rises and falls in a sort of flushing motion, as can be seen in this video following a 7.3 magnitude earthquake in Oaxaca, Mexico. "These waves impact a shelf that's a big boulder that fell into Devil's Hole tens of thousands of years ago. It's anywhere from six inches to two and a half ... How an earthquake in Alaska made a wave of water in Death Valley - 89.3 KPCC

How an earthquake 

in Alaska made a 

wave of water in 

Death Valley

Exterior of Devil's Hole in Death Valley National Park. Inside this cavern is the only known habitat of the Devil's Hole Pupfish.

Jacob Margolis | January 26, 2018

---

On Monday night, a 7.9 magnitude earthquake 

struck the Gulf of Alaska. Violent shaking was 

followed by a tsunami alert, but the seismic 

ripple that coursed across the Pacific was 

only eight inches high.

The water in Devil's Hole.

COURTESY OF U.S. FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE

But about 2,000 miles away, in the middle of Death Valley, there was a one foot wave in a small pool of water called Devil's Hole.

The geologic feature is an oblong fissure in the earth, the opening of which is only six feet wide and sixty feet long. Its visible pool is merely a window into a deep aquifer that stretches far into the earth. Its total depth, in fact, remains unknown.

How does a far off quake move a pool of water in the desert thousands of miles away?

"Imagine a big whoopee cushion, and the whoopee cushion 

is filled with water," said Matthew Weingarten, offering a 

metaphor for the shape of the Devil's Hole aquifer. 

Weingarten is a postdoctoral research fellow at Stanford 

who studies earthquakes and water interactions. He said 

that while the aquifer is sizable, its opening is comparatively 

small, so any sort of seismic disturbance manifests in 

movement of water at the surface.

"So, if you just push the whoopee cushion just a little bit 

on its side, the actual pressure changes in the narrow 

part of the whoopee cushion are very large," he said. 

"Basically, when you get stresses hitting the deeper 

part of the aquifer system ... you get these large 

amplifications of the water level that are representing

 the geometry of Devil's Hole itself."

The height of the water rises and falls in a sort of flushing 

motion, as can be seen in this video following a 7.3 

magnitude earthquake in Oaxaca, Mexico.

"These waves impact a shelf that's a big boulder that 

fell into Devil's Hole tens of thousands of years ago. 

It's anywhere from six inches to two and a half feet 

deep," said Kevin Wilson, aquatic ecologist at Death 

Valley National Park. "The water runs up and down 

like if it was a wave of the ocean."

Those disturbances could negatively impact the 

sensitive ecosystem of the endangered Devil's Hole pupfish.

The Devil's Hole pupfish. 

OLIN FEUERBACHER FOR U.S. FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE

The crashing waves create a scouring event which 

can disturb the fish's food supply and spawning 

ability. Their eggs can be crushed and small fish 

can be killed, though this most recent event didn't 

result in any documented deaths, according to Wilson.

It's not rare for seismic events to cause waves at 

Devil's Hole. Weingarten documented 219 occasions 

over a 24 year period. The smallest of which was a 

Magnitude 3.3 quake in Yucca Valley, 142 miles 

from the aquifer. It's possible, he said, that Devil's 

Hole is particularly sensitive to earthquakes coming 

from the Northwest and Southeast.

Similar seismic waves, or seiches, have been seen 

in wells in different parts of the world, Weingarten 

said. But the unique shape of Devil's Hole makes 

it particularly susceptible.