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The role of uplift and erosion in the persistence of saline groundwater in the shallow subsurface
Author(s) -
Yager R. M.,
McCoy K. J.,
Voss C. I.,
Sanford W. E.,
Winston R. B.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1002/2017gl072980
Subject(s) - groundwater recharge , geology , groundwater , meteoric water , hydrogeology , hydrology (agriculture) , groundwater flow , surface runoff , sedimentary rock , foreland basin , aquifer , structural basin , geochemistry , geomorphology , geotechnical engineering , ecology , biology
In many regions of the world, the shallow (<300 m) subsurface is replenished with meteoric recharge within a few centuries or millennia, but in some regions saline groundwater persists despite abundant rainfall. Analyses of the flushing rate of shallow groundwater usually consider the permeability and recharge rate and a static landscape. The influence of landscape evolution can become important over millions of years, however. Here we present numerical simulations of fluid flow and transport in the top 1 km of a sedimentary foreland basin dominated by aquitards, where the rate of uplift and erosion (20 m Ma −1 ) balances that of meteoric flushing. Paleozoic age saline groundwater and brine persist at shallow depths that might otherwise have contained potable water. Similar hydrogeologic conditions, and uplift and erosion rates, likely exist in many other regions of the world, where a moving landscape has probably never been considered as an important contributor to groundwater quality.