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Charles V. Theis

Publications and source records attributed to Charles V. Theis.

6 recordsLinked to original sources
USGS2014

Amount of ground‐water recharge in the southern High Plains

For the last six years the United States Geological Survey, in cooperation with the State Engineer of New Mexico, has been making somewhat intensive studies of ground‐water in the part of the High Plains that lies in New Mexico, and in 1933 and 1934 the Geological Survey, with funas allocated by the Public Works Administration, made an extensive reconnaissance‐survey of the ground‐water conditions in the southern High Plains. These studies have resulted in considerable data that throw much light on the quantity of recharge to the ground‐water in this area. An estimate of the quantity of recharge is of immediate value for this area, because the use of ground‐water is constantly being increased. In addition, it has a general value in serving as a criterion for estimating recharge in other areas in the Southwest for which fewer data are available. Estimates of the recharge in the High Plains as previously made without the advantage of quantitative data have ranged from less than three or four inches a year [see 1 of “References” at end of paper] to less than six inches [2]. The work of the last few years indicates they should be greatly reduced.

Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas↗
USGS2014

The effect of a well on the flow of a nearby stream

In many irrigation‐districts where the supplies of surface‐water from a stream nave been entirely appropriated, pumping from wells has been resorted to in order to supplement the surface‐supply. Where the pumps are near a stream that has a flow during the irrigation‐season, either because of normal ground‐water flow or because of return flow from surface‐water irrigation, the pumping is likely to diminish the stream‐flow. Conversely, diversions of water from a stream may diminish the supply of wells that were formerly supplied indirectly by seepage from the stream, but the problem involved is of a different nature than its converse and will not be discussed here.

Eos, Transactions, American Geophysical Union↗
USGS1949

Geology of the Roswell artesian basin, New Mexico, and its relation to the Hondo Reservoir and Effect on artesian aquifer storage of flood water in Hondo Reservoir

In the Roswell Basin in southeastern New Mexico artesian water is produced from cavernous zones in the carbonate rocks of the San Andres formation and the lower part of the Chalk Bluff formation, both of Permian age. The Hondo Reservoir, 9 miles west-southwest of Roswell, was completed by the U. S. Bureau of Reclamation in 1907, to store waters of the Rio Hondo for irrigation. The project was not successful, as the impounded water escaped rapidly through holes in the gypsum and limestone of the San Andres formation constituting its floor. Of 27,000 acre~feet that entered the reservoir between 1908 and 1913, only 1,100 acre-feet was drawn Ollt for use, the remainder escaping through the floor of the reservoir. Since 1939, plans have been drawn up by the State Engineer and by Federal agencies to utilize the reservoir to protect Roswell from floods. It has also been suggested that water from the Pecos River might be diverted into underground storage through the reservoir. Sinkholes in the Roswell Basin are largely clustered in areas where gypsum occurs in the bedrock. Collapse of strata is due to solution of underlying rock commonly containing gypsum. Domes occur in gypsiferous strata near Salt Creek. The Bottomless Lakes, sinkhole lakes in the escarpment on the east side of the Pecos, are believed to have developed in north-south hinge-line fractures opened when the westernmost beds in the escarpment collapsed. Collapse was due to solution and removal of gypsiferous rock by artesian water which now fills the lakes.

New Mexico↗
USGS1938

The significance and nature of the cone of depression in ground-water bodies

In nature the hydraulic system in an aquifer is in balance; the discharge is equal to the recharge and the water table or other piezometric surface is more or less fixed in position. Discharge by wells is a new discharge superimposed on the previous system. Before a new equilibrium can be established water levels must fall throughout the aquifer to an extent sufficient to reduce the natural discharge or increase the recharge by an amount equal to the amount discharged by the well. Until this new equilibrium is established water must be withdrawnfrom storage in the aquifer and conversely the new equilibrium cannot be established until an amount of water is withdrawn from storage by the well sufficient to depress the piezometric surface enough to change the recharge or natural discharge the proper amount. The depression of the piezometric surface is called the cone of depression.The characteristics of the cone of depression in an idealized aquifer of infinite areal extent are considered mathematically. Time is an essential variable in the description of this cone. The time rate of lateral growth of the cone is independent of the rate of discharge by the well and depends only on the physical characteristics of the aquifer. The cone must grow laterally much more rapidly in artesian aquifers than it does in nonartesian. The characteristics of the cone in actual aquifers are then considered. In finely porous artesian aquifers the cone appears to be much like the cone in the ideal aquifer. The cone in non-artesian aquifers must be somewhat warped. The theory out-lined implies that well discharge from extensive water-table aquifers must be a draft on storage in the aquifer for many generations.

Economic Geology↗