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Clastic sediment transport and storage in fluviokarst aquifers: an essential component of karst hydrogeology

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Abstract

Carbonate aquifers with well-developed conduit systems carry a flux of clastic sediment as an intrinsic aspect of the functioning of the aquifer. Sources of clastic sediments include sediments carried by sinking streams, soil washdown from the epikarst, plug injection by sinkhole piping failures, residual insoluble material from the dissolution of the limestone, and sediment backflooded from surface streams. The conduit system acts as a mixing chamber where the injected materials are sorted and rearranged. Information on the sediments and their transport processes can be obtained by investigating the source areas, by inspection of cave sediments, and by monitoring clastic sediment discharged from springs as a function of flow conditions. The engine that drives the sediment transport system is storm recharge in the ground water basin drained by the conduit system. Fine-grained clastics move during ordinary storms and can be captured easily at springs, but movement of coarser materials requires high-intensity, therefore infrequent, storms so that most of the sediment flux is episodic with long periods of storage interspersed with short periods of movement. Fluid mechanics provides the basis for calculations of both bedload and suspended load components. However, these calculations become complex because of the need to take into account discharge-dependent shifts from pipe flow to open channel flow and the effect of irregularities in conduit morphology and blockages due to breakdown and other barriers.

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Acknowledgments

Funding for this project was provided by the National Science Foundation Hydrologic Sciences Program under Award Nos. 125601 and 125551.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geology, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA, 17837, USA

    Ellen K. Herman

  2. Department of Geology, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, 19122, USA

    Laura Toran

  3. Department of Geosciences and Materials Research Institute, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, 16802, USA

    William B. White

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  1. Ellen K. Herman
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  2. Laura Toran
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  3. William B. White
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Correspondence to William B. White.

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Herman, E.K., Toran, L. & White, W.B. Clastic sediment transport and storage in fluviokarst aquifers: an essential component of karst hydrogeology. Carbonates Evaporites 27, 211–241 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13146-012-0112-7

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