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| Fresh earth fissure in southern Pinal County |
Over the past several years, the AZGS’ Earth Fissure
Mapping team has identified new and reactivated earth fissures in Cochise, La
Paz, Maricopa, and Pinal Counties. In early January 2017, we identified a
fresh, nearly 2-mile-long, up to 10-feet wide, and approximately 30-feet deep
earth fissure in the Tator Hills area of southern Pinal County.
For the first time, we used drone imagery to complement fissure mapping. The
resulting drone videos received more than 725,000 views at our AZGS Youtube
channel (video links: Tator
Hills video 1; and video
2).
Media response to release
of the drone videos was swift, with Phoenix- and Tucson-based television,
print, and radio outlets taking the lead (see listing below). Over the past two
weeks, the story has appeared in more than 2 dozen media outlets, including the
Arizona Daily Star and Forbes Magazine. AZGS staff have escorted representatives
from seven media outlets on tours of the earth fissure.
For additional
information, please feel free to contacts us or review our most recent report, Discovery of a large earth fissure in the southern
Picacho Basin, Pinal County, Arizona.
Earth Fissure
Background. Earth fissures are large
ground cracks that accompany land subsidence, which is in turn driven by
groundwater pumping and collapsing ground water levels. Sheet flow that
accompanies Arizona’s monsoon rains erodes, enlarges, and lengthens fissures.
Earth fissures pose a threat to people, livestock, and property values, as well
as public infrastructure: roads,
utilities, pipelines, canals, and buildings.
From 2007 to mid-2016, per
A.R.S. 32-2117, the Arizona
Geological Survey used part of its state appropriations to identify and map
nearly 200 miles of fissures in 26 study areas in Cochise, La Paz,
Maricopa, Pima, and Pinal Counties. The maps and related reports are available
online at the AZGS Document Repository and at the interactive Natural
Hazards in Arizona Viewer on our
website.
Since moving to the
University of Arizona in July 2016, we continue to map and monitor fissures in
order to provide pertinent information to the public and government agencies as
we discover new or reactivated fissures.
Tator Hills earth fissure as observed via drone
Jan. 2017 (B. Gootee). Ground view of fresh earth fissure Jan. 2017 (J. Cook)
Select Media Outlets
that released earth fissures stories (linked here) over the past two weeks.
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