Salar de Atacama, Northern Chile

Description: Located within the most arid non-polar desert with some of the densest naturally occurring brines, Salar de Atacama (SdA) in Northern Chile provides an ideal site for investigating density-controlled flow and hydrogeology in arid environments.

The modern solute and water budget of the SdA does not close within its topographic watershed. Potential mechanisms that may close the budget include interbasin flow and recharge from large precipitation events. Techniques for tracing these mechanisms currently consist of tracing sources of water to springs discharging on the eastern margin using isotope and chemical data.

Students: Anna Campbell (UG), Brendan Moran (Ms), Kayla Cox (UG) and Sarah McKnight (Ms)

Geohydrologic modeling of water budget imbalance in Clayton Valley, NV, USA

Description: Clayton Valley and its surrounding area serves as an ideal case study for interbasin flow and recharge in arid environments. Evaporation from Clayton Valley’s floor is almost 700% of local precipitation within the topographic watershed, and therefore requires watershed that spans beyond the topographic divide of the valley itself.

A three-dimensional groundwater flow model of the basin and the surrounding area simulates groundwater recharge over a series of timescales. This model is based on hydrophysical properties and groundwater field measurements. Geochemical information from waters collected in and around Clayton Valley inform and calibrate the model. This synthesis of physical chemical modeling should ensure that results from the model are based in reality.

Student: Carrie Glauner (Ms)

Massachusetts Isoscape Project

Description: Analysis of Hydrogen and Oxygen ratios in water levels allows us to understand the source of the water, Warmer water will have a higher ratio of and colder water will have a higher ratio of . From this we can make conclusions about which weather systems are impacting groundwater levels and how long the water from such systems lingers.