CONTRIBUTIONS ON THE STATUS OF ARID-LANDS RESEARCH: GROUND WATER IN AUSTRALIA
Abstract
Essentially all exploitable ground water of the Australian arid zone is contained in the pore spaces of relatively flat-lying sandstones and limestones, which occur within the major sedimentary basins and cover about half of the arid-zone land surface. In each basin the aggregate thickness of the porous rocks is hundreds to thousands of feet, and they are interlayered with various rocks not bearing water, thus producing artesian or semiartesian conditions in many places. Although the quantity of stored water is immense, most of it accumulated during the past tens to hundreds of thousands of years; at least half of it is too mineralized for use in irrigation. The annual recharge from rainfall, though unknown in amount, is undoubtedly only a very small fraction of the amount in storage, and perhaps even less than the annual amount currently pumped from wells. Outside the sedimentary basins, small to moderate supplies of ground water may be obtained from fissures in the older crystalline rocks, or from relatively thin surficial deposits of unconsolidated sand, if the local water table is not deeper than the depth of fissures or the bottom of the sand.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 01, 1969
- Accession Number
- AD0695631
Entities
People
- Eugene S. Simpson
Organizations
- University of Arizona