Landscape Deflation Exercises

[Image: A stunning and very nearly unbelievable glimpse of land subsidence in California's agricultural heartland; image courtesy of the U.S. Geological Service. "Signs show approximate land levels over the years," we read at the New York Times. "Groundwater pumping has caused some areas to sink 50 feet." Now do this as a landscape design exercise: selective deflation of the earth's surface. Create domes and valleys, sunken gardens that dimple the earth from below.].