USGS seeking more information on LMRV streams for aquifer recharge study.
Suggested Event
Aug 31, 2021 to Sep 02, 2021
In many years, heavy snowfall in the Midwest results in prolonged periods of flooding in the Lower Mississippi River Valley. But how much of that water, if any, flows into the aquifer underlying the Mississippi Alluvial Plain or MAP?
Scientists with the USDA-ARS Watershed Physical Processes Research Unit in Oxford, Miss., and USGS are studying recharge and other aspects of the physical properties of the aquifer that provides irrigation water for millions of acres of crops in the Mid-South.
Those scientists have used airborne electro-magnetic or AEM measuring to develop a new index that allows them to estimate “whether we think there is high conductivity or low conductivity between the rivers and the aquifer,” said Dr. J.R. Rigby, team lead and research hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Service’s Water Resources Mission Area and USDA-ARS.