The powerful earthquake that shook Mexico on Monday was also felt in the western United States, causing a ‘tsunami’ to strike a cave in the middle of the Death Valley desert, the National Park Service said. Americans (NPS).
Waves reaching 1m20 swept through the cave called “Devils Hole” – literally the devil’s hole – 22 minutes after Monday’s earthquake, all captured on video, said the NPS in a press release dated Wednesday.
The seismic energy traveled 2400 kilometers through the earth’s crust to the water-filled limestone cave in Nevada.
This phenomenon, officially known as seiche, stirred up sediment and rocks in the basin, which undoubtedly surprised the few dozen fish that live there.
The Cyprinodon diabolis, a rare species of fish, endemic to Devils Hole and which feeds on the algae growing in the cavern, seems to have escaped unscathed all the same.
“Fish have survived many of these events in recent years,” said Kevin Wilson, an NPS environmental expert who works in Death Valley National Park.
“We found no dead fish after the shaking stopped.”
Monday’s earthquake, with a magnitude of 7.7, killed two people in western Mexico, damaged several thousand buildings and triggered panic in this region, which is more than 400 kilometers from the capital Mexico City.
It was followed by another earthquake on Thursday which also killed at least two people.