Abstract
Abstract. The Tibetan Plateau is the source of most of Asia's major rivers and has been called the Asian Water Tower. Detailed knowledge of its hydrogeology is paramount to enable the understanding of groundwater dynamics, which plays a vital role in headwater areas like the Tibetan Plateau. Nevertheless, due to its remoteness and the harsh environment, there is a lack of field survey data to investigate its hydrogeology. In this study, borehole core lithology analysis, soil thickness measurement, an altitude survey, hydrogeological surveys, and hydrogeophysical surveys (e.g. magnetic resonance sounding – MRS, electrical resistivity tomography – ERT, and transient electromagnetic – TEM) were conducted in the Maqu catchment within the Yellow River source region (YRSR). The hydrogeological surveys reveal that groundwater flows from the west to the east, recharging the Yellow River. The hydraulic conductivity ranges from 0.2 to 12.4 m d−1. The MRS sounding results, i.e. water content and hydraulic conductivity, confirmed the presence of an unconfined aquifer in the flat eastern area. Based on TEM results, the depth of the Yellow River deposits was derived at several places in the flat eastern area, ranging from 50 to 208 m. The soil thickness measurements were done in the western mountainous area of the catchment, where hydrogeophysical and hydrogeological surveys were difficult to be carried out. The results indicate that most soil thicknesses, except on the valley floor, are within 1.2 m in the western mountainous area of the catchment, and the soil thickness decreases as the slope increases. These survey data and results can contribute to integrated hydrological modelling and water cycle analysis to improve a full-picture understanding of the water cycle at the Maqu catchment in the YRSR. The raw dataset is freely available at https://doi.org/10.17026/dans-z6t-zpn7 (Li et al., 2020a), and the dataset containing the processed ERT, MRS, and TEM data is also available at the National Tibetan Plateau Data Center with the link https://doi.org/10.11888/Hydro.tpdc.271221 (Li et al., 2020b).
Highlights
With a huge amount of water storage, the Tibetan Plateau (TP) acts as the “Water Tower of Asia” (Qu et al, 2019; Wang et al, 2017), recharging many major Asian rivers including the Salween, Mekong, Brahmaputra, Irrawaddy, Indus, Ganges, Yellow, and Yangtze rivers (Immerzeel et al, 2009), feeding more than 1.4 billion people (Immerzeel et al, 2010) and promoting regional social and economic development (Xiang et al, 2016)
The results indicate that most soil thicknesses, except on the valley floor, are within 1.2 m in the western mountainous area of the catchment, and the soil thickness decreases as the slope increases
Xiang et al (2016) separated the groundwater storage from terrestrial water storage observed by Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) using four land surface models: the Community Land Model (CLM), Mosaic, Noah, and the Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) model of the Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS) (Rodell et al, 2004), Climate Prediction Center (CPC) soil moisture data (Fan and Van Den Dool, 2004), and a glacial isostatic adjustment model
Summary
With a huge amount of water storage, the Tibetan Plateau (TP) acts as the “Water Tower of Asia” (Qu et al, 2019; Wang et al, 2017), recharging many major Asian rivers including the Salween, Mekong, Brahmaputra, Irrawaddy, Indus, Ganges, Yellow, and Yangtze rivers (Immerzeel et al, 2009), feeding more than 1.4 billion people (Immerzeel et al, 2010) and promoting regional social and economic development (Xiang et al, 2016). The groundwater-related studies on the TP are mainly satellite-based, focusing on using the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) to estimate terrestrial water storage, which consists of surface and subsurface water (Haile, 2011; Jiao et al, 2015; Zhong et al, 2009). Among those studies, Xiang et al (2016) separated the groundwater storage from terrestrial water storage observed by GRACE using four land surface models: the Community Land Model (CLM), Mosaic, Noah, and the Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) model of the Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS) (Rodell et al, 2004), Climate Prediction Center (CPC) soil moisture data (Fan and Van Den Dool, 2004), and a glacial isostatic adjustment model
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