AGU: Geophysical Research Letters

 

Editors' Highlight

Fractal topography and groundwater flow

The interaction of surface waters with groundwater influences the global cycling of both natural substances, such as nutrients, and human-made toxins that can affect aquatic ecosystems. However, it is often challenging to characterize subsurface water flow paths, which differ markedly in length, depth, and flow duration. Noting that fractal patterns are found in distributions of both watershed pathways and land surface topography, Wörman et al. (2007) studied such patterns in Scandinavia, North America, and other watersheds on continental shields. They found that the fractal nature of the land surface topography in riverine and glacial systems tends to produce fractal patterns in groundwater circulation over a wide range of spatial scales. This means that groundwater flow is influenced to some extent by the entire spectrum of surface topography, with smaller-scale features normally controlling the local flux but larger-scale features producing long flow paths that can substantially modify local behavior. The authors expect that similar processes operate in many different hydrologic systems over a very wide range of scales.

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