Subterranean Tsunami Gives Vertical Shakes to Water-Hole

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Subterranean Tsunami Gives Vertical Shakes to Water-Hole

Postby Cheryl Jones » Apr 2, 2012 11:42 pm

Pupfish, Downfish: Subterranean Tsunami Gives Vertical Shakes to the Water-Hole Home of Endangered Fishes
Watch never-captured footage of a seismic wave rocking the whole pool at Nevada's famed Devils Hole
By Peter Byrne | March 27, 2012
Scientific American

....We later learned that the underground tsunami had resulted from seismic waves emanating from a 7.4-magnitude earthquake, 12 miles deep, near the Mexican state of Oaxaca, 2,000 miles distant......
Read on:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/artic ... O_20120402
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Re: Subterranean Tsunami Gives Vertical Shakes to Water-Hole

Postby nathanroser » Apr 2, 2012 11:49 pm

I would not want to be down there.

Brings the question to mind, has anyone ever been in a cave where the water table is controlled by sea level and seen a sudden fluctuation in the water level from the water receding before a tsunami? Or recorded such an event on some data loggers?
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Re: Subterranean Tsunami Gives Vertical Shakes to Water-Hole

Postby LukeM » Apr 3, 2012 7:29 am

I'm curious to know if anyone has explained how a fish living during the last ice age became isolated in a hot pool of water. Are there similar environments nearby, or did it just evolve the ability to live in 92 degree water really quickly?
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Re: Subterranean Tsunami Gives Vertical Shakes to Water-Hole

Postby nathanroser » Apr 3, 2012 9:31 pm

The pleistocene ice sheets probably did not reach that far south, but the temperature would still be lower. Also, 92 degree water is not all that hot. The cave itself is at least 500,000 years old which should be enough time for an endemic species to differentiate. It could be possible there used to be other sites with the same fish but this one just happens to be the only one remaining.
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Re: Subterranean Tsunami Gives Vertical Shakes to Water-Hole

Postby LukeM » Apr 4, 2012 9:21 am

Isolated in the pool by retreating ice 10,000 years ago, the Devils Hole pupfish have long feasted on algae, small invertebrates and, occasionally, baby pupfish.


Nate, that's the quote I was basing my question off of. Also, I should point out that according to Wikipedia the species is 22,000 years old.
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Re: Subterranean Tsunami Gives Vertical Shakes to Water-Hole

Postby peter febb » Apr 5, 2012 7:51 am

From the velocity and volume that I see in the video, I get the feeling that the pupfish have a rather huge environment potential, possibly limited only by food availability and the oxygen content of the water.
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