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Geophysical characterization of Saraswati River palaeochannel in parts of Yamuna Nagar and Kurukshetra districts of Haryana, India

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Abstract

Palaeochannels are remnants of rivers or stream channels filled with younger sediments over the period of time. In ancient times, these rivers/channels were thriving in phenomenal conditions, but due to frequent tectonic activities, they lost the direction of their original path and were gradually either lost or buried under thick beds of younger alluvium. Palaeochannels act as reservoirs for fresh groundwater since they are made up of coarser sediments and were formerly flowing rivers. Depending on the groundwater regime and local topography, these could either be saturated or dry. The palaeochannels have high groundwater potential if saturated. These are ideal sites for artificial groundwater recharge, if dry. The identification of palaeochannels becomes quite challenging if they are buried under thick deposits of finer younger sediments. In the present study, an attempt has been made to characterize the Saraswati River Palaeochannel in parts of Yamuna Nagar and Kurukshetra districts of Haryana by using surface and subsurface geophysical methods. Till date, the palaeochannels in this area were mainly discerned on the basis of remote sensing only; therefore, geophysical characterization of these palaeochannels has been attempted in this study. In surface geophysical methods, electrical resistivity surveys, especially gradient resistivity profiling (GRP) and vertical electrical sounding (VES), were conducted in the study area, while electrical and natural gamma logging was used as subsurface geophysical approaches to identify the coarser sands of buried palaeochannels. The main objective of the study was to characterize the Saraswati River palaeochannel and analyze the quality of the groundwater stored in the palaeochannel in the study area. The findings were compared with the well-log data and were found in good agreement.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are thankful to Central Ground Water Board (CGWB), Department of Water Resources, RD & GR, Ministry of Jal Shakti, Government of India for required support and facilitation to publish this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geophysics, Kurukshetra University Kurukshetra-136119, Haryana, India

    Savita, B. S. Chaudhary & Sushil Kumar

  2. CGWB, NWR, Government of India, Chandigarh, India

    Savita, S. Bhatnagar,  Priyanka & Ayush Kesharwani

  3. CGWB, NWR, Government of India, Chandigarh, India

    Anurag Khanna

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Contributions

Savita: Data acquisition, Data processing, Analysis, Interpretations, and Writing manuscript. B.S. Chaudhary: Conceptualize the idea of research, Investigation, Overall supervision, and Writing manuscript. Sushil Kumar: Data processing, Analysis, Interpretation, and Preparation of figures and Writing manuscript. S. Bhatnagar: Data acquisition, Data processing, Analysis, Interpretations, and Writing manuscript. Priyanka: Data processing, Analysis, Interpretation. Ayush Kesharwani: Data processing, Analysis, Interpretation. A. Khanna: Conceptualize the idea of research, Overall supervision of the preparation of the manuscript.

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Savita, Chaudhary, B.S., Kumar, S. et al. Geophysical characterization of Saraswati River palaeochannel in parts of Yamuna Nagar and Kurukshetra districts of Haryana, India. Environ Monit Assess 196, 548 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-024-12672-5

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