| Abstract: | Despite its capital importance, the genesis of endoreic water table depressions in Western sub-Sahelian Africa is not well known yet. It is the case of the Trarza Aquifer, which is the main resource of drinkable water for Nouakchott. While water needs are growing steadily, global warming is threatening this resource. The genesis of piezometric depression is the object of this study, which analyses it in the light of the hydrochemistry of the western border of the Trarza aquifer, which is located in proximity of the Atlantic Ocean and its salt wedge. The hydrochemical facies of groundwater in the Idini pumping site, 60 km East of Nouakchott, and that of a Nouakchott to the Senegal River transect, should be categorised into 3 groups: 1) chloro-sulfated 2) sulfato-chlorinated and chloro-bicarbonated. Such facies, which are also sodocalcic, indicate that mineralization is of mixed origin (marine and continental). After reviewing the main mathematical models for piezometric depression, the present study attempts a conceptualization of the piezometric evolution of this phreatic aquifer (Continental Terminal) during the Quaternary. It highlights the dominant role of evaporation in the evolution of the water table of the Trarza aquifer, whose impact is similar to the one of the Quaternary marine level increase. |
