Quake Affected Water in Virginia Well:Water Recorded Rising by 3 Feet

Richmond Times-Dispatch ^ | Jan 8, 2005 | A.J. HOSTETLER

[Ligeia]

Spawned by the South Asian earthquake, seismic waves rolling deep within the Earth made Virginia well water rise and fall by 3 feet, the U.S. Geological Survey reported.

Strong oscillations at a 450-foot-deep well near the Round Meadow Country Club in Christiansburg in western Virginia started about an hour after the magnitude 9 quake struck some 9,600 miles away. Seismic waves travel through the Earth at about 7,400 mph.

"It took another five hours for that sloshing to settle out," USGS groundwater specialist David Nelms said yesterday. "That water's going up and down, up and down, up and down in that well."

The height of the oscillation came about 77 minutes after the earthquake struck near Sumatra. The water level rose about 2 feet, according to Nelms. Data indicate that water came at least within 4 inches of the surface, perhaps even spilling out.

"We saw it here. That's what amazes me, we saw it here," Nelms said. "In about an hour, we were seeing something from that earthquake here."

[Ligeia]

Second article same topic

[mommya]

Whoa - cool and freaky.

[rockabyebaby]

damn!

[Ligeia]

Amazing, isn't it?

[stylin19a]

They should apply for UN aid....

[Doohickey]

'Round here I can dig a hole deeper than a foot that doesn't fill back up with water...

[Clara Lou]

Really interesting! Wow!

[Kerfuffle]

"Clem, we go somethin' REAL WIERD happnin' under the outhouse!"

[davisfh]

Entirely possible. I have a private well on my place. The well is 520 feet deep but has only 60 feet of drop pipe in the hole. Simply put, this means that water in the 520 foot hole rises to within 60 feet of the surface.

If water were to rise to and above the surface, we would declare that it is an artesian well. And, indeed, there are some of those in the area and no pumping is required. This is basically dictated by elevation. My place is approximately 135 feet above sea level and those people at or close to sea level have "artesian" wells.

I have no reason to believe that an event such as the recent earthquake and its attendant tsunami would not affect the level of water in a pumped or artesian well.

[Ligeia]

What's amazing about this to me is the distance; not only how far we are from the Indian Ocean but how far Christiansburg is from the Atlantic coast and a possible high water table.

[Quix]

Strategerist--

My assumption is that you would quarrel with this assertion???

[davisfh]

Makes you wonder if salt water might have invaded the
aquifer, doesn't it? Truth is, we just don't know what's
going on down there and particularly in the case of such
a large seismic upheaval.