Ongoing drought-induced uplift in the western United States

Crustal rebound from water drawdown The ongoing drought across the western United States has taken a toll on underground water storage. Borsa et al. use almost imperceptible crustal uplift to estimate the regional water depletion from the drought. Inverting GPS data maps the impact of the drought on local aquifers over the past few years. The deficit so far in the western United States adds up to 240 gigatons of water, the equivalent of a 10-cm layer across the region. Certain areas of California have fared much worse, with local depletions up to five times the regional average. Science , this issue p. 1587