World’s rarest fish survived California earthquake by riding out 10-foot waves
- Full-grown Devils Hole pupfish weren’t hurt by the waves, but the July 5 quake did wipe out newly laid fish eggs
- The Ridgecrest temblor also had another positive impact on the pupfish: spurring them to breed
The magnitude 7.1 quake that split open the floor of the Mojave Desert on July 5 shook up life far beyond its epicentre. In Death Valley National Park – some 70 miles away from where the earthquake was centred – 10-foot waves erupted inside Devils Hole, a 10-foot-wide and 25-foot-long pool that is the sole home to the endangered Devils Hole pupfish.
About 136 pupfish live on a shallow underwater shelf in the geothermal pool, a drastic increase over their small population of 35 in 2013.
Earthquakes as far away as Alaska and Papua New Guinea have agitated the water in Devils Hole, but the 7.1 Ridgecrest quake rocked it more than any other in recent memory. When the second, larger quake struck, video shows the inch-long iridescent-blue pupfish diving deeper into the 500-foot Devils Hole for safety.
“It was a big deal for the fish,” said Dr Jennifer Gumm, a biologist and manager for the Ash Meadows Fish Conservation Facility of the US Fish and Wildlife Service. “The earthquake causes what’s called a seismic seiche, and it’s basically a sloshing of the water back and forth.”