Hydrogeological Properties Estimation from Groundwater Level Natural Fluctuations Analysis as a Low-Cost Tool for the Mexicali Valley Aquifer

Abstract

Data on the hydrologic properties of aquifers are frequently not available or are spatially limited; additionally, their determination through aquifer tests is often logistically complicated and economically expensive. This study aimed to estimate aquifer properties by analyzing the water level response for the effects of barometric pressure and earth tide. Harmonic analysis of the time series of water level and barometric pressure recorded in three boreholes in the Mexicali aquifer provided reasonable values of porosity, specific storage, transmissivity, and compressibility of the rock materials that constitute the alluvial aquifer. The representative values of porosity (14-20%), specific storage (1.74-6.23 × 10 −6 m-1), transmissivity (8.57-8.66 × 10 −7 m 2 •s-1), and compressibility (3.90-8.21 × 10 −10 Pa-1) were obtained. These values were consistent with the sediment types identified in the proximity of the wells analyzed. The results of this study show that the analysis of water level response to natural phenomena is a low-cost tool that provides reasonable estimates of aquifer properties. This advantage is particularly relevant in the study of aquifers where the available hydrological information is insufficient.

In-situ estimation of subsurface hydro-geomechanical properties using the groundwater response to Earth and atmospheric tides

“…In this paper the term 'dilatation' is used broadly for both the dilation and compression due to the cyclical forcing of the tides, coherent with its previous literature use (Xue et al, 2016;Allègre et al, 2016). The distortions by dilatation can be estimated through the planar strain concept known as tidal dilatation (Schulze et al, 2000;Fuentes-Arreazola et al, 2018). Tidal dilatation can be defined as…”

“…Combining ET and AT responses in the subsurface analysis is based on the principle that Earth and atmospheric tides induce strains with a different directionality. ET is fundamentally cubic, but is approximated as planar (tidal dilatation) (Schulze et al, 2000;Fuentes-Arreazola et al, 2018). However, Rojstaczer and Agnew (1989) stated that the use of the horizontal areal strain from Earth tides is a sufficient approximation for subsurface depths of up to thousands of kilometres.…”

Long-term hydrodynamic effects of the All-American Canal lining in an arid transboundary multilayer aquifer: Mexicali Valley in north-western Mexico

“…Physiographically, this area is part of the Sonoran desert province. The main economic activities in Mexicali Valley are agriculture and geothermal electric power generation (Fuentes-Arreazola et al 2018). The primary sources of water for irrigation are surface water from the Colorado River and groundwater from the Mexicali aquifer.…”

Hydrogeological Characterization of Coastal Aquifer on the Basis of Observed Sea Level and Groundwater Level Fluctuations: Neretva Valley Aquifer, Croatia

“…Finally, available publications offer a wide range of demonstration of the tidal method's capability in defining aquifer conceptual models and its parameters such as hydraulic diffusivity, transmissivity, hydraulic conductivity, storage, and confinement conditions, among other factors [47,[52][53][54][55][56][57].…”