You are browsing the archive for hydrogeology Archives - Water Underground.
October 3, 2019
Groundwater pumping poses worldwide threat to riverine ecosystems
With the climate strikes happening all over the world, I sometimes wish I had a crystal ball that would allow me to look into the future. Or even better, a crystal ball that could show me different scenarios of what will happen if we change, or not. Well, I do not have a crystal ball, but I do have a global scale hydrological model.
July 24, 2019
A do-it-yourself Jupyter notebook to constrain sediment permeability
Post by Elco Luijendijk, Junior lecturer in the Department of Structural Geology and Geodynamics at Georg-August-Universität Göttingen and WaterUnderground founder Tom Gleeson (@water_undergrnd), Associate Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Victoria. Most of the groundwater on our planet is located in sedimentary rocks. This is why it is important to know how easy or hard it is for water to flow through pores in sediments, …
May 16, 2019
Data sharing: an update on new and existing initiatives
Last year, Anne Van Loon wrote about data sharing initiatives in hydrology (“Data drought or data flood?” 28 May 2018). This post gives an update on existing and new initiatives.
March 25, 2019
Celestial groundwater – the subsurface plumbing for extraterrestrial life support
Have you ever taken a walk on the beach during a lowering (ebbing) tide and see mini-rivers grow and create beautiful drainage patterns before your eyes? These short-lived groundwater seepage features are tiny (and fast) analogs of how groundwater has shaped some parts of Mars! It appears that groundwater loosening sediments can lead to all sorts of scales of erosion on both Earth and Mars.
March 17, 2019
Of Karst! – short episodes about karst
We often associate groundwater with large water storage and very slow water movement, for instance compared to rivers. But is it possible that groundwater flow can be as quick as stream flow? Of karst, it is possible!
February 18, 2019
Water: underground source for billions could take more than a century to respond fully to climate change
While climate change makes dramatic changes to weather and ecosystems on the surface, the impact on the world’s groundwater is likely to be delayed, representing a challenge for future generations.
July 18, 2018
How deep does groundwater go? Mining (dark) data from the depths
We’ve all been asked (or do the asking), “where does your water come from?” This is a fundamental question for establishing a series of additional questions that can ultimately help define strategies for valuing and protecting a particular water resource.
January 5, 2018
A Tanzanian groundwater safari through the last 2 million years
Watching our backs in case of predators, we ventured out of the safety of our Land Rover for Gail to sample the lake water, as salt blew in drifts around us off the desiccated edges of the lake bed…
December 12, 2017
An alternate career path for Groundwater Science-Engineering PhDs
Post by Jim Roy, Research Scientist at Environment and Climate Change Canada. _______________________________________________ A recent editorial in Nature highlighted the relative scarcity of academic positions available to graduating PhD students (Many junior scientists need to take a hard look at their job prospects; 25 October, 2017). It notes that “it has been evident for years that international science is training many more PhD students than the academic system can support”. Firm …
November 28, 2017
Hydraulic fracturing close to groundwater wells
By Scott Jasechko and Debra Perrone _______________________________________________ In December, 2016, the Environmental Protection Agency finalized a report [Ref. 1] on hydraulic fracturing and drinking water resources that, among other conclusions, states: (a) Quote from [Ref. 1]: “scientific evidence that hydraulic fracturing activities can impact drinking water resources under some circumstances” (b) Quote from [Ref. 1]: “When hydraulically fractured oil and gas production wells are located near or within drinking water resources, there is …
