Groundwater loss causes Earth's surface to rise in South Africa

In context: New research reveals that South Africa's land is rising not due to deep-earth forces but because of severe water loss from droughts and groundwater depletion. This discovery presents a powerful new approach to monitoring water scarcity and informing resource management in an era of growing climate uncertainty. Over the past decade, parts of South Africa have risen by as much as six millimeters – a subtle but measurable shift detected by a network of high-precision Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receivers. These instruments, which track millimeter-scale changes, revealed a pattern that overturns long-held geological assumptions: vanishing groundwater, not ancient tectonic forces, is pushing the land upward. For years, scientists linked the phenomenon to mantle plumes – columns of molten rock rising from deep within Earth. However, a collaborative study led by the University of Bonn's Dr. Makan Karegar, Christian Mielke, Dr. Helena Gerdener, and Dr. Jürgen Kusche ... Read full article.