Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment

In the scholarly article “Offshore Aquifers” by Renee Martin-Nagle, she discusses the discovery of fresh water sources being found in the ocean. Nagle talks about the water shortage not only are an issue for California, but also the entire world. She talks about how there are two different types of aquifers, recharging and non-recharging aquifers. Recharging aquifers are aquifers are linked with the surface and receive its water reserves from rainwater, streams, rivers, and runoff. They are commonly found close to the surface. They are more susceptible to over-use and pollution. Non-recharging aquifers are usually found deep beneath the surface, and porous rocks, buried beneath a solid layer of sedimentary limestone or dolomite rock. The water found in the non-recharging aquifers arrives there because it gets trapped there when tectonic plates shift, and sea levels where much lower 20,000 years ago when the Siberian land bridge allowed humans to travel from Asia to the Americas.

The minor aquifers are Dockum, the Capitan, the Rustler, the Hickory, the Ellenburger- San Saba, the Lipan and to a small amount Marble Falls (Anaya 2001, 113). The aquifer is mostly unconfined but is semi confined in parts of the Trinity (Anaya 2001, 113). The direction of the groundwater flow is controlled by the areas of discharge, which are displayed by the strong influence of the streams form on the potentiometric surface (Barker and Ardis 1996, 35). The predominant direction of the groundwater flow is northwest to southeast, caused the base slope of the aquifer (Barker and Ardis 1996, 35). This flow is also normal to the potentiometric surface as shown in figure 3, except where the aquifer is anisotropic (Barker and Ardis 1996, 37). Most of the recharge that occurs in the Edward-Trinity aquifer happens from infiltration of precipitation over the outcrops and the sinkholes (Anaya 2001, 113). The average recharge rate over the eastern part of the plateau is 0.12 to 2.24 inches per year whereas over the Trans-Pecos region is 0.3 to 0.4 inches per year (Anaya 2001, 113). In certain areas of the plateau such as Pecos and Reeves counties there is induced recharge being caused from the water level declines due to irrigation pumping (Anaya 2001, 116). Discharge occurs in the southern and eastern portions from cross-formational flow

The USGS MODFLOW–NWT program was used to develop the model. The model consists of seven model layers representing, from top to bottom, the surficial aquifer system, the Intermediate Confining Unit, the Upper Floridan aquifer, the middle semi-confining unit (where present), the Lower Floridan aquifer, including the lower semi-confining unit, and the Fernandina permeable zone of the Lower Floridan aquifer, where present. The model is discretized into a uniform grid size of 2,500 feet by 2,500 feet. Fully calibrated Hydrologic Simulation Program Fortran (HSPF) surface water models were used to provide estimates of recharge and maximum saturated evapotranspiration as input to the groundwater model. In the first phase of model development, steady-state calibration of the model was performed for the years 2001 and 2009. A transient version of the model is planned to be developed beginning next

Surface water commonly is hydraulically connected to ground water, but the interactions are difficult to observe and measure (Winter, 1998). Interaction depends upon understanding the effect of topography, geology and climate of the groundwater

Where AET is actual evapotranspiration, P is the precipitation depth, and Q is runoff depth. Combined evaporation and transpiration from plants (evapotranspiration) is balanced by inflows as precipitation and outflows as runoff. Based on a research conducted by McGuiness (1963) for a period of seventeen years (1933-1949), the Rock Creek basin received an average precipitation of 43.5 inches, in which 12 inches was surface runoff. Therefore, if the precipitation and runoff values are substituted into the equation above, actual evapotranspiration rate of the basin equals 31.5 inches. However,

The Denver Basin has a semi arid atmosphere in which potential yearly evaporation is around five times greater than yearly precipitation. Most of the precipitation that falls on the land surface either runs off in streams, is evaporated from the surface of the soil, or is consumed by vegetation. Although this may be the case, a little part of the precipitation more often than not diffuses downwards and recharges the groundwater system. In the Denver Basin, a lot of the recharge happens in the highland areas between stream channels in the higher southern part of the basin. Precipitation is more prominent here, and the porous soils derived from the Dawson Arkose allow deep permeation. Recharge here can happen on a local and a regional scale. Locally, water moves

The Denver Basin aquifer framework is a noteworthy wellspring of water for South Metro Denver. The system extends from Colorado Springs in the south to Greeley in the north, from the foothills close Golden in the west toward the eastern fields close Limon, a surface locale of around 6,700 square miles. It joins four aquifers: the Dawson, Denver, Arapahoe, and Laramie-Fox Hills. Each aquifer has different water quality, profundities, and water availability (CFWE, 2002).

The excessive pumping of groundwater can create subsurface voids because of the lowering of the water table, which can lead to the development of sinkholes due to gravity and a loss of fluid-pressure support (Tihansky, 1999, p. 132). Waltham et al (2005) contend, “The most widespread cause of induced sinkholes is any form of water table decline, where the vertical drainage is quite literally drawn down to greater depths” (p. 165). In brief,

T/F: Groundwater has a fast natural recharge rate, thereby, allowing us to pump as much water as we please from aquifers.

(Hasan and Özay 2002, 73-74). As Albiac (2008) reports, development of pipe network distribution and drip irrigation methods in other countries led the farmers to have remarkable irrigation efficiency in drought (143). Such technologies have already been used in China, but they are not widely spread in China’s agriculture. One investigation in China on rice paddy irrigation systems development was performed and it revealed that using the fry-foot paddy irrigation (when no water flooded the field) instead of flooding irrigation (when the rice field is completely flooded) significantly (40-60%) reduces water consumption (Xiaoping, Qiangsheng and Bin 2004, 351). Furthermore, drip irrigation method was applied in arid Northern China and it raised the water usage efficiency (Du et al 2007). However, introduction of new irrigation technologies faced some difficulties in China. As Hodstedt (2010) noticed in his article, the water saved by these technologies such as drip irrigation systems was simply spent on more food production and, therefore, did not reduce the water shortage. Also, as he reported, this caused two other environmental problems. Firstly, the water, which was the supply for underground water and aquifers as it was lost by deep percolation and leakage, became unavailable after the water-saving technologies were introduced and this strengthened the aquifers depleting along with its overpumping. Secondly, after

According to a recent report released by NASA, parts of central California are sinking due to excessive groundwater pumping for agricultural use. This sinking, or “subsidence,” is nothing new, but the recent acceleration is a result of California’s current drought: farmers are forced to rely on groundwater to water their crops, because the rain that has been falling is insufficient. Unfortunately, the water table has sunk so much that the land is sinking with it, and Tom Farr—a NASA researcher and co-author of the report—says that if the fine underground layers of soil and rock that used to contain water are compressed too far, they will lose their ability to retain water at all. The uneven nature of the subsidence also means that the surface

The High Plains Aquifer’s main source of recharging comes from precipitation at a low rate below .30 inches in parts of Texas, but over 5 inches in some parts of the other eight states within the aquifer’s territory including Kansas and Nebraska (Dennehy, 2013). The issues with in managing the

In California, groundwater is not merely part of the hydrologic cycle, but a key component that supports the state’s economy, contributes towards environmental stewardship, and supports communities that may range from being partially dependent to solely dependent on groundwater. Groundwater in California has always supported the urban settlement, irrigation in the arid Central Valley, and functioned as a backup water source during droughts. Given the importance of groundwater in the state, California pumps more groundwater than any other state, pumping roughly 16% of national groundwater use (California Department of Water Resources 2015). Despite groundwater’s importance, there has not been an established system to manage groundwater throughout

A young woman named Kelly was on a train in Switzerland. While very tired she decided to catch some sleep. In the middle of her dozing off she felt a tap on her shoulder and a man was there asking if the seat across from her was taken. She replied no, and after a few minutes the man was making kissing noises at her, giving Kelly weird looks. She suddenly faced the window after repeatedly telling him no and tried to fall back asleep. After a while she woke up to him resting his hand on her leg and scooting it upward. Kelly told him no and swatted his hand away, he responded with “It’s ok. You’re American.” Kelly got up and quickly changed seats while trying to ignore the strange looks she was getting. She sat down across from a older woman and

What kind of strategic planning process (bottom-up or top-down) did Xerox follow for its turnaround? What inference can you make about the effectiveness of this approach?