Paleohydrology of the southern Great Basin, with special reference to water table fluctuations beneath the Nevada Test Site during the Late Pleistocene
Technical Report
·
OSTI ID:59620
The magnitude of water table rise during Pleistocene pluvial climates, and of the resultant shortening of ground-water flow path and reduction in unsaturated zone thickness, is investigated. The distribution of calcitic veins in alluvium and lakebeds, and of tufa deposits, between the Ash Meadows spring discharge area and the Nevada Test Site suggests that discharge from the regional Paleozoic carbonate aquifer during the Late Pleistocene occurred at distances as much as 14 kilometers northeast of Ash Meadows and at altitudes up to 50 meters higher than at present. Use of the underflow equation (relating discharge to transmissivity, aquifer width, and hydraulic gradient), and various assumptions regarding pluvial recharge, transmissivity, and altitude of ground-water base level, suggest possible rises in potentiometric level in the carbonate aquifer of 6 to 90 meters beneath central Frenchman Flat, 58 kilometers northeast of Ash Meadows. During Wisconsin time the rise probably did not exceed 30 meters. Water-level rises beneath Frenchman Flat during future pluvials are unlikely to exceed 30 meters, and future levels might even be 10 meters lower than the modern one, 210 meters beneath the center of the valley. Neither the cited rise in potentiometric level in the regional carbonate aquifer, nor the shortened flow path during the Late Pleistocene precludes utilization of the NTS as a repository for high-level or transuranic-element radioactive wastes provided other requisite conditions are met at this site. Deep water tables, attendant thick (up to several hundred meter) unsaturated zones, and ground-water flow paths tens of kilometers in length characterized the region during Wisconsin time and possibly throughout the Pleistocene, and are likely to so characterize it during future pluvial climates.
- Research Organization:
- Geological Survey, Reston, VA (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AI08-78ET44802
- OSTI ID:
- 59620
- Report Number(s):
- USGS-OFR--80-569
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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