Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar-Derived Subsidence Contours for the West-Central San Joaquin Valley, California, 2008-10

Extensive groundwater withdrawal from the unconsolidated deposits in the San Joaquin Valley caused widespread aquifer-system compaction and resultant land subsidence from 1926 to 1970—locally exceeding 8.5 meters. The importation of surface water beginning in the early 1950s through the Delta-Mendota Canal and in the early 1970s through the California Aqueduct resulted in decreased groundwater pumping, recovery of water levels, and a reduced rate of compaction in some areas of the San Joaquin Valley. However, drought conditions during 1976–77, 1987–92, and drought conditions and operational reductions in surface-water deliveries during 2007–10 decreased surface-water availability, causing pumping to increase, water levels to decline, and renewed compaction.
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the California Department of Water Resources, assessed more recent land subsidence near a 145-kilometer reach of the California Aqueduct in the west-central part of the San Joaquin Valley using Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) methods. Analysis presented in Sneed and others (2018) is based, in part, on subsidence contours derived from InSAR data for January 2008–January 2010, and are presented in this data release.