Hydrology
350,000 years of Great Basin groundwater recharge
Open access · cc by · source: Europe PMC
Devils Hole water-table history plus a groundwater model shows glacial recharge more than doubled modern rates while interglacial drying cut them only modestly.
How this study connects
Role on claims
Each row is a claim on a concept or method page where this paper supports, challenges, or qualifies the statement. Roles are hand-checked — not a model guess.
Devils Hole water-table history plus a groundwater model shows glacial recharge more than doubled modern rates while interglacial drying cut them only modestly.
Evidence for the claim as stated.
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
Structured fields used in claim comparison tables when every cited study has a complete layer.
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 .
Key findings
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.
Methodology
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.
Limitations
Transmissivity, topography, and strain are assumed nearly constant; the exact glacial water-table maximum is unknown, so wet-period recharge is a lower bound.
Related papers in this topic
Same topic cluster — not a recommendation engine.