In the late 1930s, oil was discovered under Long Beach harbor. Its production helped Long Beach recover from the Depression and provided revenue to support expansion and modernization of the harbor as well as enriching individuals who owned land in the area. As a result when land near the oil field began to sink, those who were profiting from pumping the oil out from under the land resisted any suggestion that there could be a link between oil production and subsidence. They hired experts to defend their position. As the subsidence continued, those whose property was damaged by the sinking, but who were not benefiting from the oil production, hired experts to determine what was really causing the sinking.

While the controversy continued, the land kept sinking. It sunk like a big bowl and the bottom of the bowl was more than 25 feet below its previous elevation. Some warned that if the sinking continued, the ocean might inundate the city. The Navy Shipyard was near the bottom of the bowl and the Navy didn't own the mineral rights of the Shipyard so they were suffering damage but receiving no benefit so in 1958 the Navy sued all of the oil operators. Although the suit was never litigated or settled, it helped to convince many people that a proposed solution, pumping water into the fault blocks where the oil had been taken out, should be implemented. And that solution stopped the sinking.

The production of oil from under the harbor led geologists to explore the area under the tidelands and submerged lands off Long Beach and oil was discovered to be there as well. This discovery led to a struggle between the city, to whom the state had granted the tidelands in 1911, and the state and federal governments over control of the oil revenue. Eventually the state and city were forced to divide the money.

"So we arrived at the Fallon NAS, and the two guys at the gate with machine guns or assault rifles (I don't know the difference, honestly) greeted us. I leaned over from the passenger side to start my rehearsed presentation about how silly this may sound.... One of the soldiers was off to the side, smirking, and the other to whom I was speaking smiled slightly and asked for my documents and ID, and instructed us to pull up to the barricade. He soon returned with my paperwork and said that the rental car guy would come to retrieve us. I was relieved beyond belief that I wouldn't have to unpack my two-weeks worth of belongings! What seemed like an eternity passed before Mr. Hertz showed up at the gate to lead us on a three and a half mile journey through the naval base to the car rental trailer. Yes...a portable office! Before you can say #, I was in my car and making my way back through the naval base, wishing that I could have stopped to photograph this experience. But alas, unauthorized photography was expressly disallowed - and that was made VERY clear along the way. All I really wanted was a picture of the road signs inside the base that said, "YIELD TO LOW FLYING AIRCRAFT"."

"My friends had prepped me for some of the things I would see along the way...bunkers, Area 51, etc. About 3 miles or so outside of Hawthorne, the bunkers popped up. For thousands of acres, all I could see was bunkers in the landscape. Picture the movie, "Alien", with all of the egg pods as far as the eye could see... and this was how the bunkers appeared - though elongated with doors on the side. A sign along the highway read, "NUWC"...then spelled out, Naval Undersea Warfare Center...Wow. In the middle of the desert....go figure. That's what the bunkers were for."

Originally posted by stikkinikki
In the study of streams and rivers etc there is something called the hyporrheic zone that spreads out way beyond the fast flowing waterway.

Huge Underground "Ocean" Found Beneath Asia
Richard A. Lovett
for National Geographic News
February 27, 2007

A map depicts large areas of wet underground rock (shown in red) as detected by seismic waves. Scientists studying these waves discovered a giant "ocean" of water under east Asia that contains about as much water as the Arctic Ocean. Map courtesy Eric Chou/WUSTL