TY - JOUR
T1 - Hydrogeology of the south-eastern Yucatan Peninsula: New insights from water level measurements, geochemistry, geophysics and remote sensing
AU - Gondwe, Bibi R.N.
AU - Lerer, Sara
AU - Stisen, Simon
AU - Marín, Luis
AU - Rebolledo-Vieyra, Mario
AU - Merediz-Alonso, Gonzalo
AU - Bauer-Gottwein, Peter
N1 - Funding Information:
NASDA/NASA, 2008. Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM), data products 3B42 and 3B43. TRMM algorithms were developed by the TRMM Science Team. TRMM data were processed by the TRMM Science Data and Information System (TSDIS) and the TRMM Office; archived and distributed by the Goddard Distributed Active Archive Center. TRMM is an international project jointly sponsored by the Japan National Space Development Agency (NASDA) and the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Office of Earth Sciences.
Funding Information:
We gratefully acknowledge financial support from the WWF Verdensnaturfonden/Aase and Ejnar Danielsens Fond 2006 and 2007, the COWI foundation, and the Technical University of Denmark. This study would not have been possible without field support (equipment and/or field assistants) from Amigos de Sian Ka’an, UNAM, CICY-CEA, the Geological Survey of Austria and ETH Zürich. We thank CONAGUA for climate data, access to CONAGUA boreholes and for a list of licensed private boreholes in Quintana Roo, which strongly helped us locate useful boreholes for logging. We thank CAPA for access to log the Carrillo Puerto well and for water chemical data from municipal water wells. We thank well operators and private ranch owners for granting us access to sample water from and log in their wells. Oxygen isotope analyses of water samples (results shown in the Supplementary material ) were kindly performed at Centre for Ice and Climate, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Denmark. We are thankful for the thorough comments from two anonymous reviewers, which greatly improved this manuscript.
PY - 2010/7/28
Y1 - 2010/7/28
N2 - The Yucatan Peninsula is one of the world's largest karstic aquifer systems. It is the sole freshwater source for human users and ecosystems. The region hosts internationally important groundwater-dependent ecosystems (GDEs) in the 5280km2 Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve. The GDEs are threatened by increasing groundwater abstractions and risks of pollution. Hydrogeological exploration work is needed as basis for sound groundwater management. A multidisciplinary approach was used to study this data-scarce region. Geochemical data and phreatic surface measurements showed distinct hydrogeological units in the groundwater catchment of Sian Ka'an. The hilly southwestern areas had a low hydraulic permeability, likely caused by a geology containing gypsum, whereas the transition zone and flat areas in the east and north had a high permeability. In the latter areas, the fresh groundwater could be described by a Dupuit-Ghyben-Herzberg lens. Geophysical borehole logging and time-domain electromagnetic soundings identified a shallow, low-resistive and high-gamma-radiation layer present throughout the hilly area and transition zone. Its thickness was 3-8m, apparent conductivity was 200-800mS/m and natural gamma-radiation about 80 counts pr. second. The layer is proposed to be ejecta from the Chicxulub impact (Cretaceous/Paleogene boundary). Spatial estimates of recharge were calculated from MODIS imagery using the 'triangle method'. Average recharge constituted 17% of mean annual precipitation in the study area. Recharge was greatest in the hilly area and towards Valladolid. Near the coast, average actual evapotranspiration exceeded annual precipitation. The multidisciplinary approach used in this study is applicable to other catchment-scale studies.
AB - The Yucatan Peninsula is one of the world's largest karstic aquifer systems. It is the sole freshwater source for human users and ecosystems. The region hosts internationally important groundwater-dependent ecosystems (GDEs) in the 5280km2 Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve. The GDEs are threatened by increasing groundwater abstractions and risks of pollution. Hydrogeological exploration work is needed as basis for sound groundwater management. A multidisciplinary approach was used to study this data-scarce region. Geochemical data and phreatic surface measurements showed distinct hydrogeological units in the groundwater catchment of Sian Ka'an. The hilly southwestern areas had a low hydraulic permeability, likely caused by a geology containing gypsum, whereas the transition zone and flat areas in the east and north had a high permeability. In the latter areas, the fresh groundwater could be described by a Dupuit-Ghyben-Herzberg lens. Geophysical borehole logging and time-domain electromagnetic soundings identified a shallow, low-resistive and high-gamma-radiation layer present throughout the hilly area and transition zone. Its thickness was 3-8m, apparent conductivity was 200-800mS/m and natural gamma-radiation about 80 counts pr. second. The layer is proposed to be ejecta from the Chicxulub impact (Cretaceous/Paleogene boundary). Spatial estimates of recharge were calculated from MODIS imagery using the 'triangle method'. Average recharge constituted 17% of mean annual precipitation in the study area. Recharge was greatest in the hilly area and towards Valladolid. Near the coast, average actual evapotranspiration exceeded annual precipitation. The multidisciplinary approach used in this study is applicable to other catchment-scale studies.
KW - Aquifer
KW - Conceptual model
KW - Karst
KW - Mexico
KW - Sian Ka'an
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=77954386651&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jhydrol.2010.04.044
DO - 10.1016/j.jhydrol.2010.04.044
M3 - Article
SN - 0022-1694
VL - 389
SP - 1
EP - 17
JO - Journal of Hydrology
JF - Journal of Hydrology
IS - 1-2
ER -
