The Earth has begun to crack

According to Joseph Cook from the Arizona Geological Survey, who spoke to Insider, these cracks are not natural formations, and we are the ones causing them. The subsidence, where the ground shifts, is generally the result of human efforts to extract water from the ground, which causes the soil to compact and become unstable.

The U.S. Geological Survey website states, “More than 80 percent of the identified land subsidence in the United States is a consequence of groundwater use and is an often overlooked environmental consequence of our land- and water-use practices. Increasing land development threatens to exacerbate existing land-subsidence problems and initiate new ones.”

"MOST OF THE WATER IS THOUSANDS OF YEARS OLD"

The cracks appear in places where softer ground collapses while the adjacent ground does not. Like sinkholes, these can open up quite rapidly.

A recent investigation by the New York Times into groundwater usage and the emergence of these cracks highlights a significant problem, showing that groundwater is being depleted faster than it is naturally replenished. Jason Groth, deputy director of planning and growth management for Charles County, Maryland, told the New York Times, “Most of the water we’re pulling out of the ground is thousands of years old. The rain that falls on Monday doesn’t recharge the groundwater by Saturday.”

Groth believes the county could run out of water within a decade. Due to rising temperatures and drought, the amount of groundwater collected can compensate for rainwater loss in areas such as agriculture, but this may only be a temporary solution.

Warigia Bowman, a law professor and water expert at the University of Tulsa, told the New York Times, “Objectively, this is a crisis. Parts of the U.S. are going to run out of drinking water.”