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Ground‐Water Recharge Rates from Thermometry a
Author(s) -
Nightingale Harry I.
Publication year - 1975
Publication title -
groundwater
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.84
H-Index - 94
eISSN - 1745-6584
pISSN - 0017-467X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1745-6584.1975.tb03597.x
Subject(s) - groundwater recharge , hydrology (agriculture) , environmental science , structural basin , groundwater , infiltration (hvac) , meteorology , geology , geomorphology , geotechnical engineering , physics , aquifer
Basin artificial ground‐water recharge rate at the Leaky Acres Recharge Project in Fresno, California was evaluated by Fourier analysis of temperature variations of air, basin water and ground water. The weekly mean basin‐water temperature correlated well (r = 0.982) with weekly mean air temperature. Weekly mean temperature data of the air, basin water, and recharged ground water showed that the first harmonic curve was satisfactory for determining the times of minimum and maximum temperature when convective transfer of heat was considered. The lag time between maximum basin‐water temperature and maximum ground‐water temperature at a 16 m depth (52.5 ft), showed water moved at a thermal tracer velocity of 20.8 cm/day (0.68 ft/day). The corresponding infiltration rate measured by the falling‐head method in study area basins was 18.5 cm/day (0.61 ft/day). This and other reported studies indicate that under suitable conditions with simple field instrumentation ground‐water thermometry can be used to estimate the rate and direction of recharged water movement.