Abstract
The prevailing concern in the Western Canadian Plains is that glaciers from the eastern Canadian Rocky Mountains (CRM) are losing mass, thus affecting groundwater recharge in the Plains. The generally accepted hypothesis is that those glaciers are the geological source of groundwater for aquifers located in the Plains. The aquifers located in this region, close to the eastern part of the Rockies, represent a major source of water for the local population. It is believed that aquifer recharge originates as infiltration from snowmelt and ice in the Front Ranges of the eastern Rockies. A growing concern relates to the significant glacier melt estimated from glacier mass balances, which indicate that glaciers and ice fields have experienced considerable mass losses over the last 15 years, between 1 and 5 km3 per year, thus reducing recharge. However, deep groundwater flow under melting glacier conditions in mountainous regions is poorly understood. In this study, three 2D numerical hydrogeological models are built in order to simulate the groundwater flow under the glaciers from the Main and Front Ranges of the CRM and the Plains in the province of Alberta, Canada. Numerical results and a sensitivity analysis indicate that up to three different regional groundwater-flow systems are present in the region. These systems reveal the time- and space-scales associated with the combination of a mountainous region, foothills, Plains, and deep geological conditions. Based on the current knowledge of the hydrogeology of the study area and numerical modelling results, it is highly unlikely that the melting of glaciers affects groundwater in the Plains in the immediate future. The contribution of glacier water in the eastern part of the Rockies is time-dependent with delayed groundwater flows of 1000s of years in the Front ranges, 1000s to 100,000s of years in the foothills and Foreland; and 100,000s to millions of years to the Plains, at the regional scale.
Highlights
This paper aims to evaluate the possible contribution of Canadian Rocky Mountains (CRM) glaciers to the groundwater resource of the Alberta Plains, with 2D hydrogeological finite-element analyses of regional deep groundwater flow
Since the objective of this study is to quantify the contribution of the glaciers to groundwater in urban catchments of Alberta, the domain of interest is limited by the CRM
Conceptual hydrogeological models are excellent tools to simulate groundhydrogeologicalnumerical numerical models are excellent tools to simulate water flow in complex settings and with coupled phenomena at large scales, such as groundwater flow in complex settings and with coupled phenomena at large scales, such groundwater flow and mass transport, and to forecast the fate of water following glacier as groundwater flow and mass transport, and to forecast the fate of water following glacmelt
Summary
Due to the increasing demand for water resources in urban settings of the Alberta. There is an urgent need to quantify the resource in order to manage it sustainably. Several studies have established the glacial melt contribution to watersheds and to surface run-off near the CRM and directed to the Alberta Plains [1,2]. Only a few studies have focused on the glaciers’ contribution to groundwater flow in the region, focused on a regional area such as the Alberta Plains [1,2,4,5]. Using isotopes and natural tracers, a recent study detected the driving forces and mechanisms of recharge in mountains, south of the border in the Columbia River Basalt Province [6]. Deep groundwater flow is poorly understood due to the inaccessibility of the terrain and the lack of data. Hydrogeological models of deep groundwater flow have iations
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