350,000 years of Great Basin groundwater recharge
Devils Hole water-table history plus a groundwater model shows glacial recharge more than doubled modern rates while interglacial drying cut them only modestly.
Source
A 350,000-year history of groundwater recharge in the southern Great Basin, USA
Study at a glance
- Design
- Computational / modelling — Groundwater-flow model inverted against uranium-series Devils Hole paleo-water-table elevations
- N
- Three glacial–interglacial cycles; peak glacial water tables at least +9.5 m
- Population
- Southern Great Basin groundwater recharge history
- Outcome
- Glacial recharge more than doubled modern rates while peak interglacial drying cut them only modestly
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Inspect source passages
350,000 years of Great Basin groundwater recharge
These passages occur verbatim in the stored paper text. They support the points listed below; they do not verify every statement in the explanation.
Which recharge map better fits dry climates?
Results indicate that a scaled-recharge approach better simulates drier periods, compared to the uniform-recharge approach.
Why is a millennial perspective needed here?
This is because large groundwater basins have long (>1000-year) equilibration timescales between time-varying recharge and groundwater-level changes .
What they did
Authors inverted a modified groundwater-flow model against uranium-series Devils Hole paleo-water-table elevations, testing scaled versus uniform recharge maps over three glacial–interglacial cycles.
What they found
Peak glacial water tables at least +9.5 m imply recharge increases of at least 233–244% versus modern. Peak interglacial levels above −1.6 m imply at most a 17% (scaled) recharge drop. Water-table change per percent recharge is much larger in dry climates than wet ones.
The limits
What it doesn't show
Transmissivity, topography, and strain are assumed nearly constant; the exact glacial water-table maximum is unknown, so wet-period recharge is a lower bound.
Key terms
- Paleo water table
- Past groundwater elevation reconstructed from dated cave calcite.
- AMGB
- Ash Meadows groundwater basin in southwest Nevada.
- Scaled recharge
- Recharge pattern that keeps highland-versus-valley proportions like today.
- Uniform recharge
- Wetter-climate scenario that adds more recharge on valley floors.
- r.m.w.t.
- Relative to the modern water table at Devils Hole.
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Devils Hole water tables were dated with:
Common questions
How long is the Devils Hole record used?
About 350,000 years (three glacial–interglacial cycles).
What is the modern recharge reference?
2.59 × 10^7 m³/yr at 0 m relative water table.
How much did glacial recharge rise?
At least about 233–244% above modern.
Which recharge map fits dry periods better?
Scaled recharge, not uniform valley-floor recharge.
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