Compilation of Regional Ground-Water Divides for Principal Aquifers Corresponding to the Great Lakes Basin, United States

Abstract

A compilation of regional groundwater divides for the five principal aquifers corresponding to the Great Lakes Basin within the United States is presented. The principal aquifers (or aquifer systems) are the Cambrian-Ordovician aquifer system, Silurian-Devonian aquifers, Mississippian aquifers, Pennsylvanian aquifers, and the surficial aquifer system. The regional groundwater divides mark the boundary between groundwater flow that discharges to the Great Lakes or their tributaries and groundwater flow that discharges to other major surface-water bodies, such as the Mississippi River. Multicounty to multistate (regional) hydrologic studies of the five principal aquifers were reviewed to determine whether adequate data, such as potentiometric surfaces or groundwater divides, were available from which groundwater flow directions or groundwater divide locations could be derived. Examination of regional studies indicate that the regional groundwater divides for the Cambrian-Ordovician aquifer system and Silurian-Devonian aquifers have changed over time and differ from the surface-water divides in some areas. These differences can be attributed to either pumping or natural processes. The limited information on the shallow Mississippian and Pennsylvanian bedrock aquifers indicate that these aquifers and the surficial aquifer system act as one hydrostratigraphic unit and that downdip flow is insignificant. Generally, in the Mississippian and Pennsylvanian aquifers, regional groundwater divides are similar to regional surface-water divides. Previous studies of the regional groundwater divide of the surficial aquifer system depict the regional groundwater divide as generally following the regional surface-water divide. Because studies commonly focus on areas where groundwater use from an aquifer system is concentrated, the regional groundwater divides are not known in large, unstudied parts of some of these aquifer systems. A composite groundwater divide for the region was generated and is estimated to generally follow the surface-water divide, except in areas where anthropogenic or natural factors affect its position.

Miocene rivers and taxon cycles clarify the comparative biogeography ofNorthAmerican highland fishes

“…The Kentucky and New–Kanawha rivers arose in the middle Miocene and incision due to uplift and climate change superimposed their courses across underlying strata (Bartholomew & Mills, ; Teller & Goldthwait, ). The Cincinnati Arch, which divides the Illinois and Appalachian basins (Sheets & Simonson, ), was the western boundary, except the Kentucky River was superimposed across it (Coffey, ; Melhorn & Kempton, ). Repeated glaciation formed proglacial lakes (Frolking & Pachell, ; Fleeger et al ., ) and diverted unglaciated headwaters to form the Plio‐Pleistocene Teays River (Gray, ; Melhorn & Kempton, ).…”

Basin-scale simulation of current and potential climate changed hydrologic conditions in the Lake Michigan Basin, United States

“…The Lake Michigan Basin is a large geographic area, approximately 44,922 square miles of earth surface that has numerous hydrologic studies (for example; National Geophysical Data Center, 1998) as well as many modeling efforts present within, including but not limited to a compilation of basin models for tributaries to the Great Lakes (Coon and others, 2011); a compilation of regional groundwater divides for principal aquifers corresponding to the Great Lakes Basin, United States (Sheets and Simonson, 2006); a Basin-scale groundwater flow model constructed in support of the USGS Great Lakes Basin Water Availability and Use Study (Feinstein and others, 2010); and a study on nutrient inputs to the Lauretian Great Lakes by source and basin estimated using Spatially Referenced Regression on Watershed (SPARROW) models (Robertson and Saad, 2011). Furthermore, there have been several climate change models developed for the area such as a study on the response of Great Lakes water levels to future climate scenarios (Mackay and Seglenieks, 2013), and with emphasis on Lake Michigan-Huron (Angel and Kunkel, 2010); the hydrologic impacts of projected future climate change in the Lake Michigan region (Cherkauer and Sinha, 2010); assessing effects of climate change on Chicago and the regional climate change projections (Hayhoe and others, 2010;Wuebbles and others, 2010); and the methodological approaches to projecting the hydrologic impacts of climate change Lofgren and others, 2013).…”

“…The climate of the Lake Michigan Basin is controlled by movement of air masses from the Arctic and the Gulf of Mexico and also is moderated by the size and position of Lake Michigan within a large continental land mass (Sheets and Simonson, 2006). In winter, cold, arctic air moves across the basin and absorbs moisture from the comparatively warmer Great Lakes; condensation as the air masses reach land creates heavy snowfalls on the leeward sides of the Great Lakes.…”

Estimation of groundwater use for a groundwater-flow model of the Lake Michigan Basin and adjacent areas, 1864-2005

“…This information also was needed as input to the groundwater-flow model, in which 20 layers were used to represent the hydrogeologic units in the LMB model area (appendix 1). Maps and descriptions of principal aquifers, hydrogeologic-unit distributions, and bedrock geology in Lake Michigan model area are available in other project-related reports (Sheets and Simonson, 2006;Lampe, 2009). For the purposes of this report, water-use information is divided into groups corresponding to the following hydrogeologic aquifer systems: (1) Quaternary unconsolidated deposits (model layers 1-3); (2) Jurassic to Mississippian (Marshall Sandstone) bedrock units (model layers [4][5][6][7][8]; 3Silurian-Devonian bedrock units (model layers 9-12); and (4) Cambrian-Ordovician (Sinnipee to Mount Simon) bedrock units (model layers 13-20).…”