The effects of a magnitude 7.0 earthquake that struck California last week extended more than 500 miles from the epicenter near the town of Petrolia to Devils Hole in Death Valley National Park, home of endangered Devils Hole Pupfish, the National Park Service (NPS) said.
With no other natural habitat and a population in the low 200s, the disturbance to the pupfish could mean trouble.
“Devils Hole in Death Valley National Park was shaken by an earthquake that happened in Northern California on December 5,” the agency said in a news release Thursday. “Scientists are still evaluating potential impacts to the endangered Devils Hole Pupfish.”
Just two minutes after the earthquake struck off the coast of North California at 10:44 a.m. local time on Dec. 5, “water started sloshing in Devils Hole,” NPS said, explaining water in the pool is usually still as it is sheltered from wind in the bottom of a collapsed cave.
The rare waves disrupted the shallow shelf which serves as the Devils Hole Pupfish’s main spawning, or reproduction, area and “swept most organic matter from the shelf into the cavern, which is over 500 feet deep,” NPS said. Scientists estimated the waves, technically known as a “seiche,” to be nearly two feet high.
“In the short term, this is bad for the pupfish,” NPS biologist Dr. Kevin Wilson said in Thursday’s statement. “A lot of pupfish food just sank deeper into the cave, most likely too deep for the fish to get to it. There were likely pupfish eggs on the shelf that were destroyed.”
However, it isn’t entirely grim, Dr. Wilson said, explaining that this type of reset can be favorable for the pupfish in the long run as it possibly “cleaned off any decaying organic matter that could otherwise cause pockets of low oxygen.”
The highly endangered Devils Hole pupfish have previously survived seiches, most recently in 2018, 2019, and 2022, NPS said. The fish compensate by increasing spawning activity.
Biologists working to protect fish
The NPS is still concerned about the survival of this pupfish species that has no other natural habitat, however. As of September, approximately 212 pupfish were documented in Devils Hole.
Biologists with NPS, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Nevada Department of Wildlife are “evaluating how to mitigate the disruption on the fish, which are also impacted by groundwater pumping and climate change,” said NPS. Plans would likely include increasing supplemental food supply to the fish, which typically feed on algae, invertebrates and other micro-organisms found on a shallow rock shelf within the pool.
Nestled within the Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, Devils Hole is a biodiverse, spring-fed oasis in southern Nevada. The water-filled, geothermal cave system is the only natural habitat for the highly endangered Devils Hole pupfish, according to NPS.
Saman Shafiq is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at sshafiq@gannett.com and follow her on X and Instagram @saman_shafiq7.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Video: California quake felt more than 500 miles away in Devils Hole
