The Geysers of California

Scientific American | September 28th, 1867

The Geysers of California are situated in lateral ravines of Pluton River, a tributary of Russian River. In gaining a clear idea of the California Geysers, it will be n

The Geysers of California are situated in lateral ravines of Pluton River, a tributary of Russian River. In gaining a clear idea of the California Geysers, it will be necessary to forget the geysers of Iceland, with their columns of water and capitals of cloud. Upon approaching those upon Pluton River, your first impression is that there has been a great conflagration, and that the fire engines are blowing off steam preparatory to going home. The gorge is lined with masses of smouldering ashes, from which hot steam is being drifted, by the wind, and, in some places, you can imagine that the embers are ready to relight. In the bottom of the canon, turbid and blackened water, from which vapor slowly lifts, is running among the discolored rocks. Here and there, escaping steam hisses, and, in some places, roars like the "exhaust " of an engine.

The Ground-Water Flow System in Indian Wells Valley, Kern, Inyo, and San Bernardino Counties, California

U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) | April 11th, 1991

Ground water is virtually the sole source of water supplies in Indian Wells Valley. Demand for ground water has increased significantly for municipal and military uses si

Ground water is virtually the sole source of water supplies in Indian Wells Valley. Demand for ground water has increased significantly for municipal and military uses since 1945 and for agricultural uses since 1979. The study described in this report involved updating and evaluating the hydrologic data base compiled for the two-dimensional ground-water flow model previously developed for Indian Wells Valley and analyzing the three-dimensional aspects of the ground-water flow system.

The impacts of climate change on coastal groundwater

Nature Portfolio (Springer Nature) | January 11th, 2024

Coastal groundwater (CGW) is a critical water resource for many communities and can be a key part of coastal ecosystems. Owing to its location, CGW faces both terrestrial

Coastal groundwater (CGW) is a critical water resource for many communities and can be a key part of coastal ecosystems. Owing to its location, CGW faces both terrestrial and marine effects of climate change while simultaneously being impacted by anthropogenic activities. In this Review, we discuss the expected impacts of climate change on CGW and CGW-dependent ecosystems. Sea-level rise, coastal flooding increases and precipitation and aridity changes will drive alterations in the amount, chemistry and fluxes of CGW. Impacts could also arise from changes in storm and cyclone activity, land and ocean temperature rises, cryosphere melt, ocean chemistry and coastal erosion, but the overall effect is understudied. Human-induced stressors, such as groundwater extraction, will interact with climate change impacts to alter CGW at different temporal and spatial scales. CGW-associated ecosystems are expected to respond to changes in an ecosystem and site-specific manner — for example, some coastal temperate and tropical ecosystems might be more impacted by seawater intrusion owing to sea-level rise and coastal flooding, whereas others, such as coastal polar ecosystems, could be more affected by increases in cryosphere melt. A comprehensive and global CGW observatory programme is needed to better understand baseline CGW conditions, track change and support resource management.

The importance of imperviousness

Watershed Protection Techniques, Center for Watershed Protection | December 1st, 1994

The emerging field of urban watershed protection often lacks a unifying theme to guide the efforts of its many participants—planners, engineers, landscape architects

The emerging field of urban watershed protection often lacks a unifying theme to guide the efforts of its many participants—planners, engineers, landscape architects, scientists, and local officials. The lack of a common theme has often made it difficult to achieve a consistent result at either the individual development site or cumulatively, at the watershed scale. In this article a unifying theme is proposed based on a physically defined unit: imperviousness. Imperviousness here is defined as the sum of roads, parking lots, sidewalks, rooftops, and other impermeable surfaces of the urban landscape. This variable can be easily measured at all scales of development, as the percentage of area that is not “green.” Imperviousness is a very useful indicator with which to measure the impacts of land development on aquatic systems. Reviewed here is the scientific evidence that relates imperviousness to specific changes in the hydrology, habitat structure, water quality and biodiversity of aquatic systems. This research, conducted in many geographic areas, concentrating on many different variables, and employing widely different methods, has yielded a surprisingly similar conclusion: stream degradation occurs at relatively low levels of imperviousness (~10%). Most importantly, imperviousness is one of the few variables that can be explicitly quantified, managed and controlled at each stage of land development. The remainder of this article details the relationship between imperviousness and stream quality.

The Importance of Interflow to Groundwater Recharge in a Snowmelt-Dominated Headwater Basin

American Geophysical Union (AGU) | May 23rd, 2019

Understanding the sensitivity of groundwater generation to climate in a mountain system is complicated by the tight coupling of snow dynamics to vegetation and topogr

Understanding the sensitivity of groundwater generation to climate in a mountain system is complicated by the tight coupling of snow dynamics to vegetation and topography. To address these feedbacks, we combine LiDAR-derived snow observations with an integrated hydrologic model to quantify spatially and temporally distributed water fluxes across varying climate conditions in a Colorado River headwater basin. Results indicate annual groundwater flow is an important and stable source of stream water. However, interflow decreases during drought as a function increased plant water use and the relative fraction of groundwater to streams increases. Seasonal snowmelt and vegetation water use regulate small recharge rates in the lower portions of the basin, but snowmelt transported via interflow from high mountain ridges toward convergent topographic zones define preferential recharge in the upper subalpine. Recharge in this zone appears decoupled from annual climate variability and resilient to drought. 

The Monterey Plus Amendments to State Contracts: “Paper Water” and the Kern Water Bank Giveaway: A C-WIN Policy Brief

California Water Impact Network (C-WIN) | January 1st, 2012

Changes secretly made to the State Water Project by water contractors and the California Department of Water Resources in the 1990s, known as the Monterey Plus Amendments

Changes secretly made to the State Water Project by water contractors and the California Department of Water Resources in the 1990s, known as the Monterey Plus Amendments, caused ecological destruction in the Delta and made water supplies for State Water Project customers much more expensive and less reliable.

The pattern of fresh‐water flow in a coastal aquifer

American Geophysical Union (AGU) | April 1st, 1959

Formulas are developed for the flow pattern followed by the seaward‐moving fresh ground water as it nears a beach. It is found that, under steady flow conditions, a sha

Formulas are developed for the flow pattern followed by the seaward‐moving fresh ground water as it nears a beach. It is found that, under steady flow conditions, a sharply defined interface is formed between the fresh and salt water. Along the interface the pressure of the static salt water, owing to its greater density, is counterbalanced by the pressures which drive the fresh water seaward. The fresh water escapes through a gap between this interface and the shore line. An increase in the flow of fresh water widens the gap. Tidal action causes a diffusion of salt water across the interface. This salt is carried back to sea with the fresh‐water flow.

The Radical Groundwater Storage Test

Scientific American | October 19th, 2017

IN BRIEF California could better survive flood years and drought years by capturing floodwaters and using them to recharge underground aquifers that farmers and muni

IN BRIEF California could better survive flood years and drought years by capturing floodwaters and using them to recharge underground aquifers that farmers and municipalities now pump from when rains are scarce. To do so, water users and managers have to regard surface water and groundwater as one connected resource. A variety of test projects are proving that this approach can work. For example, farm fields can be flooded even when crops are growing so the water can percolate down into aquifers. Revising water rights and paying landowners to allow flooding can help the techniques work across California and the world.

The relative contributions of summer and cool-season precipitation to groundwater recharge, Spring Mountains, Nevada, USA

Hydrogeology Journal (Springer) | June 1st, 1998

A comparison of the stable-isotope signatures of spring waters, snow, snowmelt, summer (July thru September) rain, and cool season (October thru June) rain indicates that

A comparison of the stable-isotope signatures of spring waters, snow, snowmelt, summer (July thru September) rain, and cool season (October thru June) rain indicates that the high-intensity, short-duration summer convective storms, which contribute approximately a third of the annual precipitation to the Spring Mountains, provide only a small fraction (perhaps 10%) of the recharge to this major upland in southern Nevada, USA. Late spring snowmelt is the principal means of recharging the fractured Paleozoic-age carbonate rocks comprising the central and highest portion of the Spring Mountains. Daily discharge measurements at Peak Spring Canyon Creek during the period 1978–94 show that snowpacks were greatly enhanced during El Niño events.

The Role of Permitting Regimes in Western United States Groundwater Management

National Groundwater Association (NGWA) | October 12th, 2016