Science is Fun Fridays!

 

This is Devil's Hole in Death Valley National Park.

These waters are home to an endangered pupfish, and yesterday's earthquake caused a disturbance.

The National Park Service reports that a shelf was broken by waves that reached 24 inches high.  NPS biologist, Kevin Wilson, says a lot of pupfish food "just sank deeper into the cave, most likely too deep for the fish to get."  There were likely pupfish eggs that were destroyed as well.

But it's not all bad news.  "It cleaned off any decaying organic matter that could otherwise cause pockets of low oxygen," so this type of reset can be good for the fish.

Isolation over the course of thousands of years has led to these fish being, what is believed to be, one of the most inbred invertebrates on Earth.