Fractured bedrock and saprolite hydrogeologic controls on groundwater/surface-water interaction: a conceptual model (Australia)

Banks, EdwardW.; Simmons, CraigT.; Love, AndrewJ.; Cranswick, Roger; Werner, AdrianD.; Bestland, ErickA.; Wood, Martin; Wilson, Tania

Fractured bedrock and saprolite hydrogeologic controls on groundwater/surface-water interaction: a conceptual model (Australia) | Contrôles hydrogéologiques du socle fracture et de la saprolite sur les interactions eaux souterraines –eaux de surface: un modèle conceptuel (Australie) Controles hidrogeológicos de rocas de basamento fracturado y saprolito sobre la interacción agua subterránea – agua superficial: Un modelo conceptual (Australia) 裂隙基岩和残积水文地质条件控制下的地下水地表水相互作用的一个概念模型 (澳大利亚) Controlos hidrogeológicos em maciços rochosos fracturados e saprólitos na interacção águas subterrâneas-águas superficiais: Um modelo conceptual (Austrália)

2009

Hydrologic conceptual models of groundwater/surface-water interaction in a saprolite-fractured bedrock geological setting often assume that the saprolite zone is hydraulically more active than the deeper bedrock system and ignore the contribution of deeper groundwater from the fractured bedrock aquifer. A hydraulic, hydrochemical, and tracer-based study was conducted at Scott Creek, Mount Lofty Ranges, South Australia, to explore the importance of both the deeper fractured bedrock aquifer system and the shallow saprolite layer on groundwater/surface-water interaction. The results of this study suggest that groundwater flow in the deeper fractured bedrock zone is highly dynamic and is an important groundwater flow pathway along the hillslope. Deep groundwater is therefore a contributing component in streamflow generation at Scott Creek. The findings of this study suggest that hydrologic conceptual models, which treat the saprolite-fractured bedrock interface as a no-flow boundary and do not consider the deeper fractured bedrock in hydrologic analyses, may be overly simplistic and inherently misleading in some groundwater/surface-water interaction analyses. The results emphasise the need to understand the relative importance of subsurface flow activity in both of these shallow saprolite and deeper bedrock compartments as a basis for developing reliable conceptual hydrologic models of these systems.

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