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Quantitative geophysical investigations of granular aquifers

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Abstract

Groundwater flow and storage in granular aquifers are much more amenable to analysis than in fissured reservoirs. The hydrological parameters used to describe the behaviour of a granular aquifer have been seen to be related to geophysical parameters in diverse water-bearing formations. This means that certain geophysical survey techniques are potentially useful as quantitative hydrogeological tools. Yet the study of these basic relationships and their subsequent field application have been disjointed and lacking in overal co-ordination. Consequently these quantitative hydrogeophysical procedures have not been applied to maximum advantage.

The role of geophysics in quantitative studies of granular aquifers is reviewed in terms of the prediction of effective porosity and intergranular permeability from geophysical measurement. The potential usefulness of these methods manifests itself through the degree of correlation between hydrological and geophysical parameters observed from laboratory studies, borehole logging investigations or field survey data. Their application is exemplified through an ordered series of hydrogeophysical case histories. It is contended that the potential of geophysical methods in quantitative studies of this kind has by no means been fully exploited.

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  1. Geophysics Division, National Physical Research Laboratory, C.S.I.R., P.O. Box 395, Pretoria, south Africa

    Paul Francis Worthington

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  1. Paul Francis Worthington
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Worthington, P.F. Quantitative geophysical investigations of granular aquifers. Geophysical Surveys 2, 313–366 (1975). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01447858

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