Exploring the hydrological effects of normal faults at the boundary of the Roer Valley Graben in Belgium using a catchment-scale groundwater flow model

Casillas-Trasvina, Alberto; Rogiers, Bart; Beerten, Koen; Wouters, Laurent; Walraevens, Kristine

doi:10.1007/s10040-021-02423-y

Cited by 3 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…Notwithstanding their lithological differences, Patyn et al (1989) concluded from hydrogeological observations that these sediments behave as a single aquifer. Similar to Casillas-Trasvina et al (2021), in this work, the combined Quaternary deposits, Pleistocene, and Upper and Lower Pliocene aquifers, together with the Lower Miocene and Oligocene aquifer system, are referred to as the Neogene Aquifer.…”

Section: Study Area and Hydrogeological Settingmentioning

confidence: 81%

“…The NAM by Casillas-Trasvina et al (2021) has a lateral boundary that coincides with the catchment boundaries of the Kleine and Grote Nete rivers. Similar to Gedeon (2008), the catchment is assumed to be laterally isolated, so no groundwater flow across the lateral boundary occurs.…”

Section: Conceptual Modelmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…The Neogene Aquifer is located in the Campine area, in the northeast of Flanders, and is considered to be the most important groundwater reservoir in the region (Coetsiers and Walraevens, 2006). A full description of the study area has been presented elsewhere (Casillas-Trasvina et al, 2021). For clarity, only a brief summary is given here.…”

Section: Study Area and Hydrogeological Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For the current work, the Neogene Aquifer model (NAM), a steady-state groundwater flow model constructed by Casillas-Trasvina et al (2021) using MODFLOW-2005(Harbaugh, 2005, is used. A heat transport model by has been updated using MT3D-USGS (Bedekar et al, 2016) and is used for simulations.…”

Section: Modelling Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Additionally, emphasis is put on the disturbances in heat transport by the presence of faults, highlighting the Rauw fault -a 55 km long normal fault. To this end, we use the state-of-the-art 3D groundwater flow model presented by Casillas-Trasvina et al (2021) and gather temperature-depth (TD) profiles spread over the catchment, land surface temperature (LST) satellite image data (NASA's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, MODIS), and a paleo-temperature time series to set a transient temperature boundary condition. This case study will help in assessing the usefulness of temperature data in a catchment-scale lowland setting to characterize the magnitude and patterns of groundwater flow.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Characterizing groundwater heat transport in a complex lowland aquifer using paleo-temperature reconstruction, satellite data, temperature–depth profiles, and numerical models

Casillas-Trasvina

Rogiers²,

Beerten³

et al. 2022

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

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Abstract. Heat is a naturally occurring, widespread groundwater tracer that can be used to identify flow patterns in groundwater systems. Temperature measurements, being relatively inexpensive and effortless to gather, represent a valuable source of information which can be exploited to reduce uncertainties on groundwater flow, and, for example, support performance assessment studies on waste disposal sites. In a lowland setting, however, hydraulic gradients are typically small, and whether temperature measurements can be used to inform us about catchment-scale groundwater flow remains an open question. For the Neogene Aquifer in Flanders, groundwater flow and solute transport models have been developed in the framework of safety and feasibility studies for the underlying Boom Clay formation as a potential host rock for geological disposal of radioactive waste. However, the simulated fluxes by these models are still subject to large uncertainties as they are typically constrained by hydraulic heads only. In the current study, we use a state-of-the-art 3D steady-state groundwater flow model, calibrated against hydraulic head measurements, to build a 3D transient heat transport model, for assessing the use of heat as an additional state variable, in a lowland setting and at the catchment scale. We therefore use temperature–depth (TD) profiles as additional state variable observations for inverse conditioning. Furthermore, a Holocene paleo-temperature time curve was constructed based on paleo-temperature reconstructions in Europe from several sources in combination with land surface temperature (LST) remotely sensed monthly data from 2001 to 2019 (retrieved from NASA's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, MODIS). The aim of the research is to understand the mechanisms of heat transport and to characterize the temperature distribution and dynamics in the Neogene Aquifer. The simulation results clearly underline advection/convection and conduction as the major heat transport mechanisms, with a reduced role of advection/convection in zones where flux magnitudes are low, which suggests that temperature is also a useful indicator in a lowland setting. Furthermore, the performed scenarios highlight the important roles of (i) surface hydrological features and withdrawals driving local groundwater flow systems and (ii) the inclusion of subsurface features like faults in the conceptualization and development of hydrogeological investigations. These findings serve as a proxy of the influence of advective transport and barrier/conduit role of faults, particularly for the Rauw fault in this case, and suggest that solutes released from the Boom Clay might be affected in similar ways.

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Section: Study Area and Hydrogeological Settingmentioning

confidence: 81%

Section: Conceptual Modelmentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Study Area and Hydrogeological Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Modelling Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Characterizing groundwater heat transport in a complex lowland aquifer using paleo-temperature reconstruction, satellite data, temperature–depth profiles, and numerical models

Casillas-Trasvina

Rogiers²,

Beerten³

et al. 2022

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

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Effects of microtopography on patterns and dynamics of groundwater–surface water interactions

Lu,

Yang

2024

Advances in Water Resources

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Structural Uncertainty Due to Fault Timing: A Multimodel Case Study from the Perth Basin

Bardot,

Lesueur,

Siade

et al. 2024

Groundwater

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Faults can fundamentally change a groundwater flow regime and represent a major source of uncertainty in groundwater studies. Much research has been devoted to uncertainty around their location and their barrier‐conduit behavior. However, fault timing is one aspect of fault uncertainty that appears to be somewhat overlooked. Many faulted models feature consistent layer offsets, thereby presuming that block faulting has occurred recently and almost instantaneously. Additionally, barrier and/or conduit behavior is often shown to extend vertically through all layers when a fault may in fact terminate well below‐ground surface. In this study, we create three plausible geological interpretations for a transect in the Perth Basin. Adjacent boreholes show stratigraphic offsets and thickening which indicate faulting; however, fault timing is unknown. Flow modeling demonstrates that the model with the most recent faulting shows profoundly different flow patterns due to aquifer juxtaposition. Additionally, multiple realizations with stochastically generated parameter sets for layer, fault core, and fault damage zone conductivity show that fault timing influences flow more than layer or fault zone conductivity. Finally, fault conduit behavior that penetrates aquitards has significant implications for transport, while fault barrier behavior has surprisingly little. This research advocates for adequate data collection where faults may cause breaches in aquitards due to layer offsets or conduit behavior in the damage zone. It also promotes the use of multiple geological models to address structural uncertainty, and highlights some of the hurdles in doing so such as computational expense and the availability of seamless geological‐flow modeling workflows.

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Exploring the hydrological effects of normal faults at the boundary of the Roer Valley Graben in Belgium using a catchment-scale groundwater flow model

Cited by 3 publications

References 37 publications

Characterizing groundwater heat transport in a complex lowland aquifer using paleo-temperature reconstruction, satellite data, temperature–depth profiles, and numerical models

Characterizing groundwater heat transport in a complex lowland aquifer using paleo-temperature reconstruction, satellite data, temperature–depth profiles, and numerical models

Effects of microtopography on patterns and dynamics of groundwater–surface water interactions

Structural Uncertainty Due to Fault Timing: A Multimodel Case Study from the Perth Basin

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