Ground Water in Kilauea Volcano and Adjacent Areas of Mauna Loa Volcano, Island of Hawaii

Abstract

About 1,000 million gallons of water per day moves toward or into ground-water bodies of Kilauea Volcano from the lavas of Mauna Loa Volcano. This movement continues only to the northern boundaries of the east and southwest rift zones of Kilauea, where a substantial quantity of ground water is deflected downslope to other ground-water bodies or to the ocean. In the western part of Kilauea, the Kaoiki fault system, which parallels the southwest rift zone, may be the main barrier to ground-water movement. The diversion of the ground water is manifested in the western part of Kilauea by the presence of large springs at the shore end of the Kaoiki fault system, and in the eastern part by the apparently large flow of unheated basal ground water north of the east rift zone. Thus, recharge to ground water in the rift zones of Kilauea and to the areas to the south of the rift zones may be largely by local rainfall. Recharge from rainfall for all of Kilauea sources. Four possible sources are (1) cold meteoric water, (2) cold seawater, (3) hydrothermal fluids of meteoric origin, and (4) hydrothermally modified seawater. The chloride-ion to magnesium-ion ratio of ground water indicates whether the water has been geothermally modified. A ratio greater than 15 to 1 generally denotes geothermally modified ground water.

Chemical weathering fluxes from volcanic islands and the importance of groundwater: The Hawaiian example

“…The dashed line connects samples taken along the main trunk of the stream and thus shows how the DSi of the main trunk changes along the length of the stream. (Shade, 1995a); b, (Shade, 1997); c, (Shade and Nichols, 1996); d, (Shade, 1999); e, (Engott and Vana, 2007); f, (State of Hawaii, 1990); g, (Takasaki, 1993); h, (Shade, 1995b); i, (Waimea Water Services, Inc., 2004). …”

“…The ratio SGD/Q describes the relative importance of submarine groundwater discharge and total stream discharge in delivering water from land to the ocean. discharge is observed in those areas (Takasaki, 1993), while in the Onomea aquifer just north of Hilo, the ratio is <1 due to extremely heavy precipitation.…”

Multiphase groundwater flow near cooling plutons

“…Several constitutive relations complete the description of the system Mercer, 1977, 1979;Hayba and Ingebritsen, 1994] [Takasaki, 1993], suggesting that a free upper boundary is appropriate for these experiments.…”

Groundwater chemistry in the vicinity of the Puna Geothermal Venture Power Plant, Hawai‘i, after two decades of production

“…Scholl and others (1996) used tritium data to estimate residence times of 18-25 years for the groundwater feeding these springs, though some of this time could include periods of slow flow through dike-impounded zones within the LERZ. Hydraulic conductivity between the rift and the coastal warm springs is thought to be in the range of 1-6 km/d (Imada, 1984;Takasaki;Gingerich, 1995). Given the hydraulic gradient and effective porosity south of the rift zone (Gingerich, 1995), groundwater flow expressed as particle velocity relevant to contaminant transport is likely to range from about 3 to 30 m/d (Sorey and Colvard, 1994).…”

“…Thus, groundwater north of the rift zone flows northeast toward the ocean. Groundwater within the rift zone flows generally down rift toward Cape Kumukahi, but some outflow into the permeable lava flows to the south is suspected along the lower part of the rift where the concentration of impermeable dikes decreases (Takasaki, 1993;Gingerich, 1995). Several shallow groundwater wells in the LERZ are tens of degrees warmer than ambient temperatures, and brackish springs along the southeast coast of the island, down the hydraulic gradient from the LERZ, are several degrees warmer than background.…”