Subsiding Ground
Due to the massive volume of oil removed in the Maracaibo Basin, some oil-producing areas adjacent to Lake Maracaibo have sunk, changing the geography of the region. The original concessions to oil companies purposefully assigned swamps and wetlands along the East border of the lakes for facilities. This required the oil companies to build dikes and drain the land in order to build their facilities, Dutch Shell takes credit for some of the most enduring dike systems. Since the nationalization of the oil industry, maintenance of the dike systems has fallen upon the Venezuelan government to sub-sea-level areas like Tía Juana, Lagunillas, and Bachaquero from encroachment by the waters. Cumulative subsidence is as much as 5 meters, and it continues at a rate of up to 20 cm/yr at some locations inland and typically 5 cm/yr along the coast. Many consider the dike to be a disaster in waiting, with the potential of an earthquake causing soil liquefaction and submerging a large population. A program of mitigative measures to address the seismic risk was begun in 1988. Ongoing maintenance and improvements to the dike will be needed, as it continues to subside by as much as 7 cm per year.
Read more about this topic: Lake Maracaibo
Famous quotes containing the word ground:
“Keep out of Chancery.... It’s being ground to bits in a slow mill; it’s being roasted at a slow fire; it’s being stung to death by single bees; it’s being drowned by drops; it’s going mad by grains.”
—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)