Groundwater Response to the Ridgecrest, CA Earthquakes

Locations of the July 2019 Ridgecrest, CA earthquake epicenters and five USGS groundwater-monitoring sites with corresponding hydrographs. Effects from the two earthquakes were observed in several USGS continuous groundwater-level monitoring sites in California, Nevada, and Arizona. The groundwater levels generally recovered immediately following the events, but in two examples shown by the hydrographs at sites 4 and 5, there are longer-term changes in slope or shifts in altitudes of the groundwater levels. Responses to the magnitude 6.4 earthquake (<0.5 foot) are generally smaller than the magnitude 7.1 event (between 0.1 and 3 feet).