Use of Groundwater Level Fluctuations near an Operating Water Supply Well to Estimate Aquifer Transmissivity

We developed a method to estimate aquifer transmissivity from the hydraulic-head data associated with the normal cyclic operation of a water supply well thus avoiding the need for interrupting the water supply associated with a traditional aquifer test. The method is based on an analytical solution that relates the aquifer's transmissivity to the standard deviation of the hydraulic-head fluctuations in one or more observation wells that are due to the periodic pumping of the production well. We analyzed the resulting analytical solution and demonstrated that when the observation wells are located near the pumping well, the solution has a simple, Dupuit like form. Numerical analysis demonstrates that the analytical solution can also be used for a quasi-periodic pumping of the supply well. Simulation of cyclic pumping in a statistically heterogeneous medium confirms that the method is suitable for analyzing the transmissivity of weakly or moderately heterogeneous aquifers. If only one observation well is available, and the shift in the phase of hydraulic-head oscillations between the pumping well and the observation well is not identifiable. Prior knowledge of aquifer's hydraulic diffusivity is required to obtain the value of the aquifer transmissivity.     

Calibration of the Tibetan Plateau Using Regional Seismic Waveforms

We use the recordings from 51 earthquakes produced by a PASSCAL deployment in Tibet to develop a two-layer crustal model for the region. Starting with their ISC locations, we iteratively fit the P-arrival times to relocate the earthquakes and estimate mantle and crustal seismic parameters. An average crustal P velocity of 6.2–6.3 km/s is obtained for a crustal thickness of 65 km while the P velocity of the uppermost mantle is 8.1 km/s. The upper layer of the model is further fine-tuned by obtaining the best synthetic SH waveform match to an observed waveform for a well-located event. Green's functions from this model are then used to estimate the source parameters for those events using a grid search procedure. Average event relocation relative to the ISC locations, excluding two poorly located earthquakes, is 16 km. All but one earthquake are determined by the waveform inversion to be at depths between 5 and 15 km. This is 15 km shallower, on average, than depths reported by the ISC. The shallow seismicity cut-off depth and low crustal velocities suggest high temperatures in the lower crust. Thrust faulting source mechanisms dominate at the margins of the plateau. Within the plateau, at locations with surface elevations less than 5 km, source mechanisms are a mixture of strike-slip and thrust. Most events occurring in the high plateau where elevations are above 5 km show normal faulting. This indicates that a large portion of the plateau is under EW extension.     

Using Domestic Well Records to Determine Fractured Bedrock Watersheds and Recharge Rates

This study presents an approach for delineating groundwater basins and estimating rates of recharge to fractured crystalline bedrock. It entailed the use of completion report data (boring logs) from 2500 domestic wells in bedrock from the Coventry Quadrangle, which is located in northeastern Connecticut and characterized by metamorphic gneiss and schist. Completion report data were digitized and imported into ArcGIS^® for data analysis. The data were processed to delineate groundwater drainage basins for the fractured rock based on flow conditions and to estimate groundwater recharge to the bedrock. Results indicate that drainage basins derived from surface topography, in general, may not correspond with bedrock drainage basins due to scale. Estimates of recharge to the bedrock for the study area indicate that only a small fraction of the precipitation or the amount of water that enters the overburden recharges the rock. The approach presented here can be a useful method for water resource‐related assessments that involve fractured rock aquifers.     

Advantages of Using Multichannel Analysis of Love Waves (MALW) to Estimate Near-Surface Shear-Wave Velocity

As theory dictates, for a series of horizontal layers, a pure, plane, horizontally polarized shear (SH) wave refracts and reflects only SH waves and does not undergo wave-type conversion as do incident P or Sv waves. This is one reason the shallow SH-wave refraction method is popular. SH-wave refraction method usually works well defining near-surface shear-wave velocities. Only first arrival information is used in the SH-wave refraction method. Most SH-wave data contain a strong component of Love-wave energy. Love waves are surface waves that are formed from the constructive interference of multiple reflections of SH waves in the shallow subsurface. Unlike Rayleigh waves, the dispersive nature of Love waves is independent of P-wave velocity. Love-wave phase velocities of a layered earth model are a function of frequency and three groups of earth properties: SH-wave velocity, density, and thickness of layers. In theory, a fewer parameters make the inversion of Love waves more stable and reduce the degree of nonuniqueness. Approximating SH-wave velocity using Love-wave inversion for near-surface applications may become more appealing than Rayleigh-wave inversion because it possesses the following three advantages. (1) Numerical modeling results suggest the independence of P-wave velocity makes Love-wave dispersion curves simpler than Rayleigh waves. A complication of “Mode kissing” is an undesired and frequently occurring phenomenon in Rayleigh-wave analysis that causes mode misidentification. This phenomenon is less common in dispersion images of Love-wave energy. (2) Real-world examples demonstrated that dispersion images of Love-wave energy have a higher signal-to-noise ratio and more focus than those generated from Rayleigh waves. This advantage is related to the long geophone spreads commonly used for SH-wave refraction surveys, images of Love-wave energy from longer offsets are much cleaner and sharper than for closer offsets, which makes picking phase velocities of Love waves easier and more accurate. (3) Real-world examples demonstrated that inversion of Love-wave dispersion curves is less dependent on initial models and more stable than Rayleigh waves. This is due to Love-wave’s independence of P-wave velocity, which results in fewer unknowns in the MALW method compared to inversion methods of Rayleigh waves. This characteristic not only makes Love-wave dispersion curves simpler but also reduces the degree of nonuniqueness leading to more stable inversion of Love-wave dispersion curves.     

中小地震宽频带辐射能量的单台测定

辐射能量是独立于地震矩的另一个重要的震源参数，在地震危险性和地震危害的评估工作中具有重要的实际意义。通过辐射能量和地震矩的比较可以估计视应力，而视应力是震源物理研究中一个重要的物理量。考虑到我国地震台网分布不均匀的情况，本文尝试利用单台宽频带波形资料进行辐射能量的测定。选用CDSN昆明台(KMI)记录的中小地震宽频带波形资料，分析地震图横向分量上的SH波及其后续震相，采用哈佛大学的震源机制结果进行辐射花样因子的校正，通过采用Brune模型，用补偿谱的方法试错得到品质因子Q。所得结果与NEIC用远震体波测得的能量结果具有较好的一致性。用同样的方法，还对更小的地震进行了能量测定的尝试，结果表明小地震的视应力一地震矩标度关系似乎与中强震有所不同。     

Hydraulic Conductivity Measurements in the Unsaturated Zone Using Improved Well Analyses

The flow of ponded water into and through the unsaturated zone depends on both the saturated and unsaturated components of the hydraulic conductivity. Recent studies indicate that the ratio of the saturated (K_fs) to the unsaturated (φ_m) components (K_fs/φ_m=α*) of flow lies within prescribed bounds for most field soils, i.e., 1m⁻¹≤α*≤ 100 m⁻¹. In addition, the fact that the calculation of K_fs and φ_m is not strongly dependent on the choice of α*, suggests that a site estimation of α* leads to reasonable "best estimates" of K_fs and φ_m when using the constant head well permeameter technique. As a consequence, measurement of the steady flow rate using only one ponded head may be all that is necessary for many practical applications. Multiple head measurements or independent measurements of α* or φ_m can be used, however, to give more accurate estimates of K_fs if required.     

Small Purge Method to Sample Vapor from Groundwater Monitoring Wells Screened Across the Water Table

Groundwater monitoring wells are present at most hydrocarbon release sites that are being assessed for cleanup. If screened across the vadose zone, these wells provide an opportunity to collect vapor samples that can be used in the evaluation of vapor movement and biodegradation processes occurring at such sites. This paper presents a low purge volume method (modified after that developed by the U.S. EPA) for sampling vapor from monitoring wells that is easy to implement and can provide an assessment of the soil gas total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH) and O₂ concentrations at the base of the vadose zone. As a result, the small purge method allows for sampling of vapor from monitoring wells to support petroleum vapor intrusion (PVI) risk assessment. The small purge volume method was field tested at the Hal's service station site in Green River, Utah. This site is well‐known for numerous soil gas measurements containing high O₂ and high TPH vapor concentrations in the same samples which is inconsistent with well‐accepted biodegradation models for the vapor pathway. Using the low purge volume method, monitoring wells were sampled over, upgradient, and downgradient of the light nonaqueous phase liquid (LNAPL) footprint. Results from our testing at Hal's show that vapor from monitoring wells over LNAPL contained very low O₂ and high TPH concentrations. In contrast, vapor from monitoring wells not over LNAPL contained high O₂ and low TPH concentrations. The results of this study show that a low purge volume method is consistent with biodegradation models especially for sampling at sites where low permeability soils exist in and around a LNAPL source zone.     

利用InSAR技术研究青藏高原冻土形变特征

由于自然环境的限制,青藏高原的大地测量网络十分稀疏,不能满足区域地壳运动监测的需求。干涉合成孔径雷达(InSAR)是非接触监测地壳运动的一种重要方式,但在高原上受到冻土的影响。本文基于2014～2018年的Sentinel-1卫星C波段雷达数据,采用InSAR时序技术分析了冻土形变的时空特征。针对InSAR位移时间序列,采用空间滤波去除了大气延迟、地形效应等局部公共误差,提高了时间序列的信噪比。结果显示,青藏高原的冻土运动可分为差异较大的两类:在大部分冻土区域,与周边高山(基岩)区域相比,冻土地区显示类似的季节波动或一定的长期沉降;在部分冻土地区存在异常快速下沉区域,例如在西藏中部布若错湖西南侧的沉积盆地内,存在一个直径约2 km的漏斗型沉降区, LOS向沉降速率可达约10±2.1 mm/a。构造运动造就了高原上大量沿断裂线分布的河流、湖泊,河床和沉积盆地等广泛分布着冻土,给准确分析构造形变带来很大挑战,本文所得的结果可作为区分冻土运动与构造变形的一种有效判据,也有益于研究高原冻土的物理特性及变形机理。     

A Method to Estimate the Hydraulic Conductivity of the Ground by TRT Analysis

The knowledge of hydraulic properties of aquifers is important in many engineering applications. Careful design of ground‐coupled heat exchangers requires that the hydraulic characteristics and thermal properties of the aquifer must be well understood. Knowledge of groundwater flow rate and aquifer thermal properties is the basis for proper design of such plants. Different methods have been developed in order to estimate hydraulic conductivity by evaluating the transport of various tracers (chemical, heat etc.); thermal response testing (TRT) is a specific type of heat tracer that allows including the hydraulic properties in an effective thermal conductivity value. Starting from these considerations, an expeditious, graphical method was proposed to estimate the hydraulic conductivity of the aquifer, using TRT data and plausible assumption. Suggested method, which is not yet verified or proven to be reliable, should be encouraging further studies and development in this direction.     

遥感技术在地震灾害损失调查评估中的应用

我国是世界上地震灾害最为严重的国家之一,地震灾害的频繁发生严重威胁着社会经济的快速发展.面对地震这种突发性自然灾害,能否对其灾害损失在2～3天内做出误差较小的初评估、10天左右做出较详细评估,对制定抗震救灾决策是至关重要的.震后地震现场情况复杂,受当地地理、环境、气候等各方面因素的影响,人工调查存在诸多困难和不全面性,并且有一定危险性,从而使调查评估结果或多或少存在一定偏差,而且工作周期长,调查评估结果只能是大概数据,影响抗震救灾决策和救援工作进展速度.     

Extending the Capture Map Concept to Estimate Discrete and Risk-Based Streamflow Depletion Potential

A popular and contemporary use of numerical groundwater models is to estimate the discrete relation between groundwater extraction and surface-water/groundwater exchange. Previously, the concept of a “capture map” has been put forward as a means to effectively summarize this relation for decision-making consumption. While capture maps have enjoyed success in the environmental simulation industry, they are deterministic, ignoring uncertainty in the underlying model. Furthermore, capture maps are not typically calculated in a manner that facilitates analysis of varying combinations of extraction locations and/or reaches. That is, they are typically constructed with focus on a single reach or group of reaches. The former of these limitations is important for conveying risk to decision makers and stakeholders, while the latter is important for decision-making support related to surface-water management, where future foci may include reaches that were not the focus of the original capture analysis. Herein, we use the concept of a response matrix to generalize the theory of the capture-map approach to estimate spatially discrete streamflow depletion potential. We also use first-order, second-moment uncertainty estimation techniques with the concept of “risk shifting” to place capture maps and streamflow depletion potential in a stochastic, risk-based framework. Our approach is demonstrated for an integrated groundwater/surface-water model of the lower San Antonio River, Texas, USA.     

马16井开采对马17井水动态观测的影响

为了验证平原地区深井水动态观测受环境条件影响的情况,我们选择了河北省河间地区马17地震观测井和马16地热开发井进行对比观测,试图探讨马16井开采对马17井水动态观测的影响。结果表明马17井的动水位年变化是气压干扰所致,与马16井采水无明显关系。马16井冬季开采热水对马17井动水位观测无明显影响。     

高村井记录到的一次降雨荷载效应

高村深层地下水测井是全国地震地下水监测网中的重点井之一。１９９４年７月，在该井记录到了一次时间短、变幅较大的水位动态异常，作者经多方面较为仔细的分析研究后认定，该异常反映了一次典型的降雨荷载效应，并对该异常的形成机制作了初步讨论。     

静态密闭状态下大甸子井孔隙度与体积压缩系数时序特征分析

以内蒙古大甸子观测井为数据收集对象,利用原始水位观测数据得到该井静态密闭下气压系数、水位与气压的关系以及孔隙度与气压系数的关系,从而分析该井静态密闭状态下孔隙度与体积压缩系数时序特征。结果表明,孔隙度与固体骨架的体积压缩系数和含水层内水的体积压缩系数间存在幂函数关系;在第一象限内,各井含水层介质固体骨架的体积压缩系数随着孔隙度的增大而增大;含水层内水的体积压缩系数随着孔隙度的增大而减小。     

An Estimate of Global Mean Sea-level Rise Inferred from Tide-gauge Measurements Using Glacial-isostatic Models Consistent with the Relative Sea-level Record

This study is concerned with the influence of the glacial-isostatic adjustment caused by the last Pleistocene deglaciation on the present-day sea level. The viscoelastic deformation caused by the time-variable ice and ocean loads is simulated by computing the resulting perturbations for a spherical, self-gravitating, incompressible, Maxwell-viscoelastic earth model. The associated variation of the earth rotation is described in terms of the Liouville equation, which is solved by means of the MacCullagh formulae. This allows the determination of the vertical displacement and geoid height and, thus, the solution of the sea-level equation. We test several viscosity and ice models and evaluate them by comparison of the computed response with the Holocene relative sea-level record. Using the optimum combination of viscosity and ice models, we then estimate the influence of the last Pleistocene deglaciation on the tide-gauge measurements. A comparison between the observational and residual linear trends for the tide-gauge measurements shows a significant reduction of the variance and geographical variability for the latter, in particular for the formerly ice-covered regions of North America and Scandinavia. The favoured value determined for the global mean sea-level rise is (1.46±0.2) mm a⁻¹.