Airborne Electromagnetic Signatures of an Ancient River in the Water‐Stressed Ganga Plain, Prayagraj, India: A Potential Groundwater Repository

Abstract

AbstractThe rapid depletion and deterioration of groundwater in the Ganga River Basin requires an effective water management plan for sustained water availability. An airborne electromagnetic study in the Ganga‐Yamuna doab, India, supplemented with drilling and logging data to address the groundwater crisis, has unraveled exhaustive aquifer information with a discovery of 45 km long buried river, having dimensions comparable to those of Ganga and Yamuna. This ancient river, likely to be extending toward the Himalaya, is characterized by a porous and permeable structures and is hydrogeologically linked with Ganga and Yamuna rivers through an underlying principal aquifer, which might hold a great promise for management of the current declining groundwater resources in the region. Interestingly, the location of this major paleoriver falls within the region where a lost mythological river was believed to be flowing in the past. The results add a new physical dimension to this belief.