TY - JOUR
T1 - Crustal Groundwater Volumes Greater Than Previously Thought
AU - Ferguson, Grant
AU - McIntosh, Jennifer C.
AU - Warr, Oliver
AU - Sherwood Lollar, Barbara
AU - Ballentine, Christopher J.
AU - Famiglietti, James S.
AU - Kim, Ji Hyun
AU - Michalski, Joseph R.
AU - Mustard, John F.
AU - Tarnas, Jesse
AU - McDonnell, Jeffrey J.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.
PY - 2021/8/28
Y1 - 2021/8/28
N2 - Global groundwater volumes in the upper 2 km of the Earth's continental crust—critical for water security—are well estimated. Beyond these depths, a vast body of largely saline and non-potable groundwater exists down to at least 10 km—a volume that has not yet been quantified reliably at the global scale. Here, we estimate the amount of groundwater present in the upper 10 km of the Earth's continental crust by examining the distribution of sedimentary and crystalline rocks with depth and applying porosity-depth relationships. We demonstrate that groundwater in the 2–10 km zone (what we call “deep groundwater”) has a volume comparable to that of groundwater in the upper 2 km of the Earth's crust. These new estimates make groundwater the largest continental reservoir of water, ahead of ice sheets, provide a basis to quantify geochemical cycles, and constrain the potential for large-scale isolation of waste fluids.
AB - Global groundwater volumes in the upper 2 km of the Earth's continental crust—critical for water security—are well estimated. Beyond these depths, a vast body of largely saline and non-potable groundwater exists down to at least 10 km—a volume that has not yet been quantified reliably at the global scale. Here, we estimate the amount of groundwater present in the upper 10 km of the Earth's continental crust by examining the distribution of sedimentary and crystalline rocks with depth and applying porosity-depth relationships. We demonstrate that groundwater in the 2–10 km zone (what we call “deep groundwater”) has a volume comparable to that of groundwater in the upper 2 km of the Earth's crust. These new estimates make groundwater the largest continental reservoir of water, ahead of ice sheets, provide a basis to quantify geochemical cycles, and constrain the potential for large-scale isolation of waste fluids.
KW - cratons
KW - deep groundwater
KW - global hydrology
KW - porosity
KW - sedimentary basins
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U2 - 10.1029/2021GL093549
DO - 10.1029/2021GL093549
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85113549928
SN - 0094-8276
VL - 48
JO - Geophysical Research Letters
JF - Geophysical Research Letters
IS - 16
M1 - e2021GL093549
ER -