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Geology topics

A. L. Flint

Publications and source records attributed to A. L. Flint.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
USGS2012

A basin-scale approach for assessing water resources in a semiarid environment: San Diego region, California and Mexico

Many basins throughout the world have sparse hydrologic and geologic data, but have increasing demands for water and a commensurate need for integrated understanding of surface and groundwater resources. This paper demonstrates a methodology for using a distributed parameter water-balance model, gaged surface-water flow, and a reconnaissance-level groundwater flow model to develop a first-order water balance. Flow amounts are rounded to the nearest 5 million cubic meters per year. The San Diego River basin is 1 of 5 major drainage basins that drain to the San Diego coastal plain, the source of public water supply for the San Diego area. The distributed parameter water-balance model (Basin Characterization Model) was run at a monthly timestep for 1940–2009 to determine a median annual total water inflow of 120 million cubic meters per year for the San Diego region. The model was also run specifically for the San Diego River basin for 1982–2009 to provide constraints to model calibration and to evaluate the proportion of inflow that becomes groundwater discharge, resulting in a median annual total water inflow of 50 million cubic meters per year. On the basis of flow records for the San Diego River at Fashion Valley (US Geological Survey gaging station 11023000), when corrected for upper basin reservoir storage and imported water, the total is 30 million cubic meters per year. The difference between these two flow quantities defines the annual groundwater outflow from the San Diego River basin at 20 million cubic meters per year. These three flow components constitute a first-order water budget estimate for the San Diego River basin. The ratio of surface-water outflow and groundwater outflow to total water inflow are 0.6 and 0.4, respectively. Using total water inflow determined using the Basin Characterization Model for the entire San Diego region and the 0.4 partitioning factor, groundwater outflow from the San Diego region, through the coastal plain aquifer to the Pacific Ocean, is calculated to be approximately 50 million cubic meters per year. The area-scale assessment of water resources highlights several hydrologic features of the San Diego region. Groundwater recharge is episodic; the Basin Characterization Model output shows that 90 percent of simulated recharge occurred during 3 percent of the 1982–2009 period. The groundwater aquifer may also be quite permeable. A reconnaissance-level groundwater flow model for the San Diego River basin was used to check the water budget estimates, and the basic interaction of the surface-water and groundwater system, and the flow values, were found to be reasonable. Horizontal hydraulic conductivity values of the volcanic and metavolcanic bedrock in San Diego region range from 1 to 10 m per day. Overall, results establish an initial hydrologic assessment formulated on the basis of sparse hydrologic data. The described flow variability, extrapolation, and unique characteristics represent a realistic view of current (2012) hydrologic understanding for the San Diego region.

California↗
USGS2012

A method for physically based model analysis of conjunctive use in response to potential climate changes

Potential climate change effects on aspects of conjunctive management of water resources can be evaluated by linking climate models with fully integrated groundwater-surface water models. The objective of this study is to develop a modeling system that links global climate models with regional hydrologic models, using the California Central Valley as a case study. The new method is a supply and demand modeling framework that can be used to simulate and analyze potential climate change and conjunctive use. Supply-constrained and demand-driven linkages in the water system in the Central Valley are represented with the linked climate models, precipitation-runoff models, agricultural and native vegetation water use, and hydrologic flow models to demonstrate the feasibility of this method. Simulated precipitation and temperature were used from the GFDL-A2 climate change scenario through the 21st century to drive a regional water balance mountain hydrologic watershed model (MHWM) for the surrounding watersheds in combination with a regional integrated hydrologic model of the Central Valley (CVHM). Application of this method demonstrates the potential transition from predominantly surface water to groundwater supply for agriculture with secondary effects that may limit this transition of conjunctive use. The particular scenario considered includes intermittent climatic droughts in the first half of the 21st century followed by severe persistent droughts in the second half of the 21st century. These climatic droughts do not yield a valley-wide operational drought but do cause reduced surface water deliveries and increased groundwater abstractions that may cause additional land subsidence, reduced water for riparian habitat, or changes in flows at the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. The method developed here can be used to explore conjunctive use adaptation options and hydrologic risk assessments in regional hydrologic systems throughout the world.

Water Resources Research↗
USGS2008

A basin-scale approach to estimating stream temperatures of tributaries to the lower Klamath River, California

Stream temperature is an important component of salmonid habitat and is often above levels suitable for fish survival in the Lower Klamath River in northern California. The objective of this study was to provide boundary conditions for models that are assessing stream temperature on the main stem for the purpose of developing strategies to manage stream conditions using Total Maximum Daily Loads. For model input, hourly stream temperatures for 36 tributaries were estimated for 1 Jan. 2001 through 31 Oct. 2004. A basin-scale approach incorporating spatially distributed energy balance data was used to estimate the stream temperatures with measured air temperature and relative humidity data and simulated solar radiation, including topographic shading and corrections for cloudiness. Regression models were developed on the basis of available stream temperature data to predict temperatures for unmeasured periods of time and for unmeasured streams. The most significant factor in matching measured minimum and maximum stream temperatures was the seasonality of the estimate. Adding minimum and maximum air temperature to the regression model improved the estimate, and air temperature data over the region are available and easily distributed spatially. The addition of simulated solar radiation and vapor saturation deficit to the regression model significantly improved predictions of maximum stream temperature but was not required to predict minimum stream temperature. The average SE in estimated maximum daily stream temperature for the individual basins was 0.9 ?? 0.6??C at the 95% confidence interval. Copyright ?? 2008 by the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America. All rights reserved.

Journal of Environmental Quality↗
USGS2008

Modeling soil moisture processes and recharge under a melting snowpack

Recharge into granitic bedrock under a melting snowpack is being investigated as part of a study designed to understand hydrologic processes involving snow at Yosemite National Park in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California. Snowpack measurements, accompanied by water content and matric potential measurements of the soil under the snowpack, allowed for estimates of infiltration into the soil during snowmelt and percolation into the bedrock. During portions of the snowmelt period, infiltration rates into the soil exceeded the permeability of the bedrock and caused ponding to be sustained at the soil-bedrock interface. During a 5-d period with little measured snowmelt, drainage of the ponded water into the underlying fractured granitic bedrock was estimated to be 1.6 cm d?1, which is used as an estimate of bedrock permeability. The numerical simulator TOUGH2 was used to reproduce the field data and evaluate the potential for vertical flow into the fractured bedrock or lateral flow at the bedrock-soil interface. During most of the snowmelt season, the snowmelt rates were near or below the bedrock permeability. The field data and model results support the notion that snowmelt on the shallow soil overlying low permeability bedrock becomes direct infiltration unless the snowmelt rate greatly exceeds the bedrock permeability. Late in the season, melt rates are double that of the bedrock permeability (although only for a few days) and may tend to move laterally at the soil-bedrock interface downgradient and contribute directly to streamflow. ?? Soil Science Society of America.

Conference Paper↗
USGS2006

Onset of snowmelt and streamflow in 2004 in the Western Unites States: How shading may affect spring streamflow timing in a warmer world

Historic streamflow records show that the onset of snowfed streamflow in the western United States has shifted earlier over the past 50 yr, and March 2004 was one of the earliest onsets on record. Record high temperatures occurred throughout the western United States during the second week of March, and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) stream gauges throughout the area recorded early onsets of streamflow at this time. However, a set of nested subbasins in Yosemite National Park, California, told a more complicated story. In spite of high air temperatures, many streams draining high-elevation basins did not start flowing until later in the spring. Temperatures during early March 2004 were as high as temperatures in late March 2002, when streams at all of the monitored Yosemite basins began flowing at the same time. However, the March 2004 onset occurred before the spring equinox, when the sun was lower in the sky. Thus, shading and solar radiation differences played a much more important role in 2004, leading to differences in streamflow timing. These results suggest that as temperatures warm and spring melt shifts earlier in the season, topographic effects will play an even more important role than at present in determining snowmelt timing. ?? 2006 American Meteorological Society.

Journal of Hydrometeorology↗
USGS2006

Global synthesis of groundwater recharge in semiarid and arid regions

Global synthesis of the findings from ∼140 recharge study areas in semiarid and arid regions provides important information on recharge rates, controls, and processes, which are critical for sustainable water development. Water resource evaluation, dryland salinity assessment (Australia), and radioactive waste disposal (US) are among the primary goals of many of these recharge studies. The chloride mass balance (CMB) technique is widely used to estimate recharge. Average recharge rates estimated over large areas (40–374 000 km 2 ) range from 0·2 to 35 mm year −1 , representing 0·1–5% of long-term average annual precipitation. Extreme local variability in recharge, with rates up to ∼720 m year −1 , results from focussed recharge beneath ephemeral streams and lakes and preferential flow mostly in fractured systems. System response to climate variability and land use/land cover (LU/LC) changes is archived in unsaturated zone tracer profiles and in groundwater level fluctuations. Inter-annual climate variability related to El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) results in up to three times higher recharge in regions within the SW US during periods of frequent El Niños (1977–1998) relative to periods dominated by La Niñas (1941–1957). Enhanced recharge related to ENSO is also documented in Argentina. Climate variability at decadal to century scales recorded in chloride profiles in Africa results in recharge rates of 30 mm year −1 during the Sahel drought (1970–1986) to 150 mm year −1 during non-drought periods. Variations in climate at millennial scales in the SW US changed systems from recharge during the Pleistocene glacial period (≥10 000 years ago) to discharge during the Holocene semiarid period. LU/LC changes such as deforestation in Australia increased recharge up to about 2 orders of magnitude. Changes from natural grassland and shrublands to dryland (rain-fed) agriculture altered systems from discharge (evapotranspiration, ET) to recharge in the SW US. The impact of LU change was much greater than climate variability in Niger (Africa), where replacement of savanna by crops increased recharge by about an order of magnitude even during severe droughts. Sensitivity of recharge to LU/LC changes suggests that recharge may be controlled through management of LU. In irrigated areas, recharge varies from 10 to 485 mm year −1 , representing 1–25% of irrigation plus precipitation. However, irrigation pumpage in groundwater-fed irrigated areas greatly exceeds recharge rates, resulting in groundwater mining. Increased recharge related to cultivation has mobilized salts that accumulated in the unsaturated zone over millennia, resulting in widespread groundwater and surface water contamination, particularly in Australia. The synthesis of recharge rates provided in this study contains valuable information for developing sustainable groundwater resource programmes within the context of climate variability and LU/LC change.

Hydrological Processes↗
USGS2002

Estimating recharge at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, USA: Comparison of methods

Obtaining values of net infiltration, groundwater travel time, and recharge is necessary at the Yucca Mountain site, Nevada, USA, in order to evaluate the expected performance of a potential repository as a containment system for high-level radioactive waste. However, the geologic complexities of this site, its low precipitation and net infiltration, with numerous mechanisms operating simultaneously to move water through the system, provide many challenges for the estimation of the spatial distribution of recharge. A variety of methods appropriate for arid environments has been applied, including water-balance techniques, calculations using Darcy's law in the unsaturated zone, a soil-physics method applied to neutron-hole water-content data, inverse modeling of thermal profiles in boreholes extending through the thick unsaturated zone, chloride mass balance, atmospheric radionuclides, and empirical approaches. These methods indicate that near-surface infiltration rates at Yucca Mountain are highly variable in time and space, with local (point) values ranging from zero to several hundred millimeters per year. Spatially distributed net-infiltration values average 5 mm/year, with the highest values approaching 20 mm/year near Yucca Crest. Site-scale recharge estimates range from less than 1 to about 12 mm/year. These results have been incorporated into a site-scale model that has been calibrated using these data sets that reflect infiltration processes acting on highly variable temporal and spatial scales. The modeling study predicts highly non-uniform recharge at the water table, distributed significantly differently from the non-uniform infiltration pattern at the surface.

Hydrogeology Journal↗
USGS2002

Calibration and temperature correction of heat dissipation matric potential sensors

This paper describes how heat dissipation sensors, used to measure soil water matric potential, were analyzed to develop a normalized calibration equation and a temperature correction method. Inference of soil matric potential depends on a correlation between the variable thermal conductance of the sensor's porous ceramic and matric potential. Although this correlation varies among sensors, we demonstrate a normalizing procedure that produces a single calibration relationship. Using sensors from three sources and different calibration methods, the normalized calibration resulted in a mean absolute error of 23% over a matric potential range of −0.01 to −35 MPa. Because the thermal conductivity of variably saturated porous media is temperature dependent, a temperature correction is required for application of heat dissipation sensors in field soils. A temperature correction procedure is outlined that reduces temperature dependent errors by 10 times, which reduces the matric potential measurement errors by more than 30%. The temperature dependence is well described by a thermal conductivity model that allows for the correction of measurements at any temperature to measurements at the calibration temperature.

Soil Science Society of America Journal↗
USGS2002

Preliminary estimates of spatially distributed net infiltration and recharge for the Death Valley region, Nevada-California

A three-dimensional ground-water flow model has been developed to evaluate the Death Valley regional flow system, which includes ground water beneath the Nevada Test Site. Estimates of spatially distributed net infiltration and recharge are needed to define upper boundary conditions. This study presents a preliminary application of a conceptual and numerical model of net infiltration. The model was developed in studies at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, which is located in the approximate center of the Death Valley ground-water flow system. The conceptual model describes the effects of precipitation, runoff, evapotranspiration, and redistribution of water in the shallow unsaturated zone on predicted rates of net infiltration; precipitation and soil depth are the two most significant variables. The conceptual model was tested using a preliminary numerical model based on energy- and water-balance calculations. Daily precipitation for 1980 through 1995, averaging 202 millimeters per year over the 39,556 square kilometers area of the ground-water flow model, was input to the numerical model to simulate net infiltration ranging from zero for a soil thickness greater than 6 meters to over 350 millimeters per year for thin soils at high elevations in the Spring Mountains overlying permeable bedrock. Estimated average net infiltration over the entire ground-water flow model domain is 7.8 millimeters per year.To evaluate the application of the net-infiltration model developed on a local scale at Yucca Mountain, to net-infiltration estimates representing the magnitude and distribution of recharge on a regional scale, the net-infiltration results were compared with recharge estimates obtained using empirical methods. Comparison of model results with previous estimates of basinwide recharge suggests that the net-infiltration estimates obtained using this model may overestimate recharge because of uncertainty in modeled precipitation, bedrock permeability, and soil properties for locations such as the Spring Mountains. Although this model is preliminary and uncalibrated, it provides a first approximation of the spatial distribution of net infiltration for the Death Valley region under current climatic conditions.

Water-Resources Investigations Report↗
USGS2001

Hydrology of Yucca Mountain, Nevada

Yucca Mountain, located in southern Nevada in the Mojave Desert, is being considered as a geologic repository for high-level radioactive waste. Although the site is arid, previous studies indicate net infiltration rates of 5-10 mm yr-1 under current climate conditions. Unsaturated flow of water through the mountain generally is vertical and rapid through the fractures of the welded tuffs and slow through the matrix of the nonwelded tuffs. The vitric-zeolitic boundary of the nonwelded tuffs below the potential repository, where it exists, causes perching and substantial lateral flow that eventually flows through faults near the eastern edge of the potential repository and recharges the underlying groundwater system. Fast pathways are located where water flows relatively quickly through the unsaturated zone to the water table. For the bulk of the water a large part of the travel time from land surface to the potential repository horizon (~300 m below land surface) is through the interlayered, low fracture density, nonwelded tuff where flow is predominately through the matrix. The unsaturated zone at Yucca Mountain is being modeled using a three-dimensional, dual-continuum numerical model to predict the results of measurements and observations in new boreholes and excavations. The interaction between experimentalists and modelers is providing confidence in the conceptual model and the numerical model and is providing researchers with the ability to plan further testing and to evaluate the usefulness or necessity of further data collection.

Reviews of Geophysics↗
USGS1997

A new method for automated dynamic calibration of tipping-bucket rain gauges

Existing methods for dynamic calibration of tipping-bucket rain gauges (TBRs) can be time consuming and labor intensive. A new automated dynamic calibration system has been developed to calibrate TBRs with minimal effort. The system consists of a programmable pump, datalogger, digital balance, and computer. Calibration is performed in two steps: 1) pump calibration and 2) rain gauge calibration. Pump calibration ensures precise control of water flow rates delivered to the rain gauge funnel; rain gauge calibration ensures precise conversion of bucket tip times to actual rainfall rates. Calibration of the pump and one rain gauge for 10 selected pump rates typically requires about 8 h. Data files generated during rain gauge calibration are used to compute rainfall intensities and amounts from a record of bucket tip times collected in the field. The system was tested using 5 types of commercial TBRs (15.2-, 20.3-, and 30.5-cm diameters; 0.1-, 0.2-, and 1.0-mm resolutions) and using 14 TBRs of a single type (20.3-cm diameter; 0.1-mm resolution). Ten pump rates ranging from 3 to 154 mL min −1 were used to calibrate the TBRs and represented rainfall rates between 6 and 254 mm h −1 depending on the rain gauge diameter. All pump calibration results were very linear with R 2 values greater than 0.99. All rain gauges exhibited large nonlinear underestimation errors (between 5% and 29%) that decreased with increasing rain gauge resolution and increased with increasing rainfall rate, especially for rates greater than 50 mm h −1 . Calibration curves of bucket tip time against the reciprocal of the true pump rate for all rain gauges also were linear with R 2 values of 0.99. Calibration data for the 14 rain gauges of the same type were very similar, as indicated by slope values that were within 14% of each other and ranged from about 367 to 417 s mm h −1 . The developed system can calibrate TBRs efficiently, accurately, and virtually unattended and could be modified for use with other rain gauge designs. The system is now in routine use to calibrate TBRs in a large rainfall collection network at Yucca Mountain, Nevada.

Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology↗
USGS1996

Improved method for measuring water imbibition rates on low-permeability porous media

Existing methods for measuring water imbibition rates are inadequate when imbibition rates are small (e.g., clay soils and many igneous rocks). We developed an improved laboratory method for performing imbibition measurements on soil or rock cores with a wide range of hydraulic properties. Core specimens are suspended from an electronic strain gauge (load cell) in a closed chamber while maintaining the lower end of the core in contact with a free water surface in a constant water level reservoir. The upper end of the core is open to the atmosphere. During imbibition, mass increase of the core is recorded continuously by a datalogger that converts the load cell voltage signal into mass units using a calibration curve. Computer automation allows imbibition rate measurement on as many as eight cores simultaneously and independently. Performance of each component of the imbibition apparatus was evaluated using a set of rock cores (2.5 cm in diameter and 2–5 cm in length) from a signle lithostratigraphic unit composed of non-to-moderately welded ash-flow tuff (a glass-rich pyroclastic rock partially fused by heat and pressure) with porosities ranging from 0.094 to 0.533 m 3 m -3 . Reproducibility of sample handling and testing procedures was demonstrated using replicate measurements. Precision and accuracy of load cell measurements were assessed using mass balance calculations and indicated agreement within a few tenths of a percent of total mass. Computed values of sorptivity, S , ranged from 8.83 × 10 -6 to 4.55 × 10 -4 m s -0.5 . The developed method should prove useful for measuring imbibition rates on a wide range of porous materials.

Soil Science Society of America Journal↗
USGS1995

Physical and hydrologic properties of outcrop samples from a nonwelded to welded tuff transition, Yucca Mountain, Nevada

Quantitative material-property data are needed to describe lateral and vertical spatial variability of physical and hydrologic properties and to model ground-water flow and radionuclide transport at the potential Yucca Mountain nuclear-waste repository site in Nevada. As part of ongoing site characterization studies of Yucca Mountain directed toward this understanding of spatial variability, laboratory measurements of porosity, bull* and particle density, saturated hydraulic conductivity, and sorptivity have been obtained for a set of outcrop samples that form a systematic,two dimensional grid that covers a large exposure of the basal Tiva Canyon Tuff of the Paintbrush Group of Miocene age at Yucca Mountain. The samples form a detailed vertical grid roughly parallel to the transport direction of the parent ash flows, and they exhibit material-property varia- tions in an interval of major lithologic change overlying a potential nuclear-waste repository at Yucca Mountain. The observed changes in hydrologic properties were systematic and consistent with the changes expected for the nonwelded to welded transition at the base of a major ash-flow sequence. Porosity, saturated hydraulic conductivity, and sorptivity decreased upward from the base of the Tiva Canyon Tuff, indicating the progressive compaction of ash- rich volcanic debris and the onset of welding with increased overburden pressure from the accumulating ash-flow sheet. The rate of decrease in the values of these material properties varied with vertical position within the transition interval. In contrast, bulk-density values increased upward, a change that also is consistent with progressive compaction and the onset of welding. Particle-density values remained almost constant throughout the transition interval, probably indicating compositional (chemical) homogeneity.

Water-Resources Investigations Report↗
USGS1993

An improved method for quantifying soil macroporosity

Quantitative information on macroporosity is needed to predict water flow and solute transport in field soils. A method was developed for determining the number, shape, and size distribution of soil macropores. Horizontal serial sections sawed from paraffin-impregnated soil cores were photographed under ultraviolet (UV) light. Anthracene, mixed with the paraffin, fluoresces a bright bluish white under UV light and provides a sharp contrast between the soil matrix and the paraffin-filled pore space. Section photographs were converted to 256 level, grey-scale digital images using a flat-bed scanner. Image processing was used to classify each pixel in a digital image as pore space or soil matrix, to group the pore space pixels into pores, and to measure the area and perimeter of each pore. The method was able to measure pores with an equivalent radius ≥85 µm. Macroporosity in soil cores sampled form a tillage path and from an adjacent, undisturbed (notill) region was quantified. Tillage sections contained, on the average, 9.4 macropores/cm 2 with an equivalent macroporosity of 8%, while no-till sections contained 0.8 macropores/cm 2 with an equivalent macroporosity of 0.3%. Computed intrinsic permeabilities for tillage sections that included macropore information were significantly larger than values computed using micropore information alone, suggesting that macropores must be included in permeability calculations when the number of macropores is large. The developed method should be useful for quantifying macroporosity in nonskeletal soils.

Soil Science Society of America Journal↗