What Happens When Fossil Water Runs Out? Part 1 || Sept 28, 2026
Fossil water is ancient water trapped in deep aquifers that take millennia to recharge, rather than the standard seasonal rainfall recharge. So, once you use it...it's gone.
For regions that have become dependent upon fossil water for agriculture, this is a big problem. The Ogallala Aquifer currently feeds western Kansas and the Texas Panhandle, but that won't last much longer. Some areas have already run dry, and regardless of less water-intensive crops and more efficient irrigation, the aquifer's days are numbered.
This is the least consequential aquifer we're discussing, but even this one plays a massive role in U.S. wheat and food production.
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Comments (18)
Bro, cliffhanger
What happened to part 2?
Looking forward to PZ discussing the water issues in Arizona. Folks have been pumping the aquifers down for quite a while. Steps were taken over the last couple years to reduce the number of farms pumping massive amounts of aquifer water to grow crops that were then shipped to Saudi Arabia as feed stock for their cattle - or something like that. Either way you look at it, it seems as though large agriculture in the middle of a desert was never going to be a good idea.
This is the first time I’ve ever heard of fossil water. There’s always something new to worry about running out
When I have traveled around the country on road trips and noticed that every farm that I go by, has these large irrigation equipment on its fields. I have wondered what will happen if the groundwater that it appears 90% of American farms rely on begins to dry up or become much more difficult to access,ie much more expensive!
Where are the safest long term food systems in the United States?
The Oglala does naturally recharge. It's just that it happens at the end of an Ice Age when the mile high glaciers of the High Plains melt and flood the Great Plains. Also, to a less extent, during the Ice Age when the normally semi-desert regions become temperate pine forests. Sadly, (or luckily) neither situation is likely to occur anytime soon.
I guess when fossil water runs out, the dinosaurs will be thirsty
How much does it help with fall in population do to brith rate decline and boomers leaving ?
Naively, if you can suck water out, you can pump water in. Just spitballing here. I know. Easier said and all that.
Yes, water recharge happens often. It was been underway for 20 years now here to recharge the Hrand River watershed in Ontario, with some success. However, in the mid west, the issue is rainfall & snowmelt. Without adequate groundwater flow, water basins don't capture sufficient flow rates aren't achievable to make consistent recharge efforts realistic.
Most of the circular irrigation in western Kansas is used for corn, soybeans and some
There's an obvious answer that is apparent from this administration's efforts to curtain 🇨🇦 soverenty - divert the Great Lakes, specifically, Lake Superior because it's the largest by volume, and Lake Michigan because it's entirely American. Such massive diversions are achievable engineering projects - Bejing keeps its lawns green due to aquiducts 1000's of kms long that divert water north, so it can be done. International treaties between the US & 🇨🇦 have stopped earlier proposals, as well as intense lobbying from Great Lakes state governments but seeing as Trump has shown little constraints in ignoring international agreements and that he has made repeated statements on how well Canadian water should be by rights, Merikan, well .... let's say we have our elbows up for a reason, and this is one of them.
That may be fine for "Bejing lawns". Trying to apply that to tens or hundreds of thousands of acres spread over multiple states is frankly not possible, at least without raising the price of the crop many times over current cost. The second issue naturally is the accompanying problem of moving all that water from the Great Lakes to the agricultural belt. Just because the lakes are above a lot of the farmland on a map doesn't mean the water is going to flow south. Lakes are lakes because they are at the lowest elevations.
Great, now I have to worry about how bad the water situation is until this series concludes. Hopefully, it will be a slow news week.
I can’t wait to visit Yosemite next year. I was going to limit myself to day hiking but with Peter’s videos I’m considering a backpacking trip.
No comparison between day hiking and backpacking in Yosemite. Definitetly go backpacking (cf: Japanese "forest bathing" {Shinrin-yoku (森林浴)])!
What a view! 🙂