Using precision temperature logs to estimate horizontal and vertical groundwater flow components

Abstract

A new method of estimating the horizontal and vertical specific discharge components of groundwater flow from precision subsurface temperature measurements is presented. Plotting the vertical temperature gradient as a function of both Z and T and then fitting a plane to the data can provide coefficients from which the vertical and horizontal groundwater specific discharge components may be estimated. Alternatively, by considering the vertical component of groundwater to be zero, it is shown that quadric or cubic fits to temperature data provide coefficients from which horizontal groundwater flow may be estimated. These expressions along with expressions previously derived to estimate only vertical, only horizontal, or both vertical and horizontal flow components are fitted to observational data from four sites and five flow zones. It is learned for these examples (using an available fitting program) that although many of the expressions fit the observational data very well statistically, those expressions which incorporate both the vertical and horizontal flow components of specific discharge must generally be constrained so that resulting parameters will provide flow estimates consistent in direction and heat transfer with available piezometer data and/or the fundamental curvature of the temperature log. Expressions incorporating only νX or only νZ can sometimes yield estimates quite different from the estimates obtained from the expressions incorporating both νX and νZ. It is concluded that an estimate of the horizontal and vertical flow components requires both consideration of the flow calculations along with available piezometric data and the fundamental curvature of the temperature log.