Quantifying groundwater-surface water interactions in a proglacial moraine using heat and solute tracers

Abstract

[1] Recent studies in mountain environments have indicated that groundwater represents a major component of the water balance of alpine streams and lakes. However, the scarcity of information on the hydraulic properties of geological materials in alpine environments presents a major obstacle to understanding the response of these watersheds to hydrological inputs and their future variability. The information is particularly limited for talus and proglacial moraine, where rugged topography prohibits the installation of groundwater monitoring wells. Observation of groundwater-surface water interaction provides a useful tool for studying groundwater in these challenging environments. Here we present a unique experiment using a tarn (i.e., pond on proglacial moraine) in a partially glaciated watershed in the Canadian Rockies as a surrogate for a groundwater monitoring well. A chloride dilution test and detailed energy balance monitoring were simultaneously conducted to quantify the groundwater-surface water interactions. The water balance of the tarn was dominated by groundwater inflow and outflow, ranging between 70 and 720 m 3 d À1 , while the volume of the water in the tarn fluctuated between 140 and 620 m 3 . Comparing the observed flow rates with a semianalytical solution of groundwater interactions with a flowthrough pond, the hydraulic conductivity of the proglacial moraine is estimated to be in the order of 10 À3 m s À1 , which provides one of the very few measurements of large-scale hydraulic conductivity of proglacial moraine. The study demonstrates a useful application of mass and energy balance measurements in rugged environments and provides the essential information for advancing our understanding of alpine groundwater hydrology.Citation: Langston, G., M. Hayashi, and J. W. Roy (2013), Quantifying groundwater-surface water interactions in a proglacial moraine using heat and solute tracers, Water Resour. Res., 49,[5411][5412][5413][5414][5415][5416][5417][5418][5419][5420][5421][5422][5423][5424][5425][5426]

Mechanisms linking active rock glaciers and impounded surface water formation in high‐mountain areas

“…Conversely, the use of tracers can be helpful in discriminating different contributions (Anderson, 2005;Langston et al, 2013). Conversely, heat can be used efficiently to determine groundwater seepage across streambeds (Schmidt et al, 2007;Constantz, 2008) and at the bottom of lakes (Langston et al, 2013). Artificial tracers can usually be used for short periods (Anderson, 2005) in remote and harsh environments.…”

Groundwater–surface water interactions in Canada

“…Although it is very difficult to quantify available groundwater resources, it is estimated that there is more groundwater in Canadian aquifers than surface water in rivers and lakes, similar to what is observed elsewhere (Rivera 2014). In the generally humid and cold Canadian climate, groundwater-surface water interactions are omnipresent (Devito et al 1996;Langston et al 2013;Brannen et al 2015;Foster and Allen 2015), but remain relatively seldom studied. The Canadian Council of Academies (CCA 2009, 185) expert panel on groundwater concluded that a sustainable use of groundwater resources requires that "groundwater and surface water be characterised and managed as an integrated system within the context of the hydrological cycle in a watershed or groundwatershed."…”

Delineating the Drainage Structure and Sources of Groundwater Flux for Lake Basaka, Central Rift Valley Region of Ethiopia

“…Permanent lakes usually interact with the surrounding groundwater (GW) system in three main ways [21]: some receive GW inflows, some have seepage loss to the GW, and others receive from and lose to the GW system [9]. There are various methods of quantifying the lake water-groundwater interaction: the measurement of seepage using flownet or seepage meters [22][23][24], simulation (mathematical) models based on Darcy's law [25][26][27], the heat tracer method [23,28,29], the water budget method [30][31][32], the chemical/solute mass balance method [32][33][34][35], or the use of stable isotopes [26,36]. Detailed reviews of the different GW flux estimation methods are well documented [22,23,26,36].…”