Position of the salt-water body in the Magothy(?) Formation in the Cedarhurst-Woodmere area of southwestern Nassau County, Long Island. New York

Abstract

The position and chloride concentration of a sizable body of salt water, moving slowly landward from the south-shore bays of Long Island and the Atlantic Ocean were defined by recent test drilling in the Cedarhurst-Woodmere area of southwestern Nassau County, Long Island, N. Y. Most of the salt-water body is in the lower part of a permeable artesian aquifer; the lowermost part of the salt-water body is in clay deposits underlying the permeable aquifer.The upper limit of the salt-water body in this area was found at depths increasing progressively in a landward direction. It was 318 feet below sea level at a well in Cedarhurst and 541 feet below sea level at a well in Woodmere. The lower limit of the salt-water body was determined at depths between 578 and 630 feet below sea level in the Cedarhurst-Woodmere area. The salt-water body is more than 300 feet thick at a well in Cedarhurst, and it thins out to zero in the vicinity of a pumping center about 1 3/4 miles northeast of the Cedarhurst well.Chloride concentration in the salt-water body in the Cedarhurst-Woodmere area ranged from about 40 to 16,000 ppm (parts per million). Isochlors define a zone of diffusion about a mile wide in the Cedarhurst-Woodmere area. They indicate a thickness of diffused water ranging from a few tens to more than 150 feet vertically.Electrical-log data show that the upper boundary of the salt-water body moved upward 21 feet between 1952 and 1958 at a site in Woodmere about half a mile southwest of the pumping center. From this information it is inferred that between 1952 and 1958 the leading edge of the salt-water front moved landward about 2,000 feet toward the pumping center.