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Geology News
Ground Water Current Events

A large number of people are concerned about the hydraulic fracturing methods now being used to produce natural gas from shale. The Environmental Protection Agency announced that it is going to study the potential impact on human health.

According to the USGS, around 50% of Americans get their water from a well. If you are one of these people, now is a good time to have a checkup performed on your well and ground water.

This video discusses how scientists have tracked what, when, and how contaminants may reach public-supply wells in four aquifers in California, Connecticut, Nebraska, and Florida.

Drilling and hydrofracking a well in one of the natural gas plays such as the Marcellus or Haynesville requires at least a million gallons of water with chemical additives and will become salty when it comes in contact with subsurface brines. An article on the Reuters website explores this problem in New York.

Nuclear fallout from experiments in the 1950s left the Pacific Marshall Islands of Rongelap, Bikini, Enjebi and Utrok contaminated. Over the years, a healthy water cycle has dissipated much of the contaminants, and other measures that are being taken may allow former inhabitants to return to their island homes.

Researchers at Oregon State University have made some unexpected discoveries about subsurface water movement in arid regions. The information may alter some long-accepted beliefs about the hydrologic cycle in some watershed systems.

In the late 1990’s, BP built the OCENSA pipeline across a portion of Colombia. Today, Colombian farmers are suing BP because their real estate and the ground water beneath it were damaged.

To assist earthquake relief agencies, affected government jurisdictions, groundwater professionals involved in the relief effort, and the news media, the National Ground Water Association has launched a Web page with useful information resources which include:

* Contact information for organizations involved with overseas groundwater projects
* NGWA’s Best Suggested Practice for Residential Well Cleaning
* Article: Earthquakes and Water Wells
* Article: Well Drillers Cope with Earthquakes
* Article: Diagnosing Structural Failures in Wells
* Article: Water Levels Drop in Quake Region
* Article: Effects of Alaska Quake Felt at a Distance
* Article Abstract: Hydrological Effects of the 1998 Pymatuning Earthquake in Northwestern Pennsylvania.

Learn all about the water on, inside, and around our planet Earth: Where is it? How is it distributed? How much is there? This page links to other sections of the USGS website with lots and lots of information about water.

U.S. News and World Report has a short list of “best careers” on their website. Among the top ten are: hydrologist, environmental science technician, environmental engineering technician, civil engineer and meteorologist.

Arsenic contamination is a problem in countries worldwide, but the situation is particularly bad in Bangladesh. Millions of people there are affected by groundwater that is tainted with arsenic.

China is rapidly modernizing, and the country is generating three times as much trash compared to 20 years ago. In some areas the trash is accumulating rapidly, and could become a serious health hazard.

Despite a 30 percent population increase during the past 25 years, overall water use in the United States has remained fairly stable. The United States is actually using less water than during the peak years of 1975 and 1980.

The American Petroleum Institute has a video that explains the horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing processes. It explains the drilling, fracturing, equipment, materials and environmental concerns.

This is an excellent video from an authoritative source.

This is a photo slideshow of some new organisms found living underground in the Australian outback. The animals include tiny snails, eels, crustaceans, scorpions, spiders, beetles, cave eels and cave fish. Many of the creatures are eyeless or blind.

Women and children in Bangladesh and West Bengal, India, are teaming with geologists to identify contaminated ground water. Some water in this area contains dangerous levels of arsenic.

ExxonMobil was fined $104.7 million for contaminating New York City ground water with M.T.B.E. (methyl tertiary butyl ether) leaked from underground gasoline storage tanks. There are many similar cases pending across the United States.

A video describes how NASA scientists can use the thermal wavelengths from Landsat data to estimate how much water is being used on a field-by-field basis.

USGS will be using “the latest satellite tracking data to gain a better understanding of how land subsidence is affecting the state-owned California Aqueduct in California’s San Joaquin Valley.”

Here’s where you can get a variety of free printable graph papers in easy to use .pdf files. Grid paper, axis paper, isometric paper, ternary paper, polar paper and more.

NASA Image

Much of northern India is dependent upon a reliable supply of groundwater for public use and irrigation. Rapid population growth, economic development and groundwater-based irrigation produce a level of groundwater use that can not be sustained.

“The Arizona Geological Survey is releasing six, new geologic map sheets showing the extent and age relationships of Quaternary alluvium along more than 175 miles of the San Pedro River and its major tributaries, Aravaipa Creek and Babocomari River. A 76-page report accompanies the maps. The Arizona Department of Water Resources used the geologic maps, in conjunction with other data, to delineate subflow zones in the watershed.” Quoted from the AZGS website.

Congratulations to AZGS for publishing these in both .pdf and .jpg formats that allow anyone anywhere to view these maps immediately online and print as their equipment allows. More geological surveys should share their publications with such easy-to-view graphics.

The largest water consumer in Arizona’s Sahuarita-Green Valley complains that a proposed mining operation will have a negative impact on water supplies in the valley. The mining company claims that they will recharge 105% of the total mine water production as close to the mine as possible.

USGS has released Professional Paper 1766, titled: “Groundwater Availability of the Central Valley Aquifer, California”. “USGS made a detailed assessment of groundwater availability of the Central Valley aquifer system, that includes: (1) the present status of groundwater resources; (2) how these resources have changed over time; and (3) tools to assess system responses to stresses from future human uses and climate variability and change.” Quoted from the USGS announcement.

Sinkholes formed by solution in the floor of the United States’ Great Lakes host unusual ecosystems different from other parts of the lake just a short distance away. The sinkholes are often locations where water that has been underground for millions of years discharges with extreme amounts of dissolved metals.