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GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 35, L08402, doi:10.1029/2008GL033753, 2008

Surface water-groundwater interface geomorphology leads to scaling of residence times

M. Bayani Cardenas

Department of Geological Sciences, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA


Abstract

We know little regarding how geomorphological features along the surface-groundwater interface collectively affect water quality and quantity. Simulations of surface water-groundwater exchange at increasing scales across bed forms, bars and bends, and basins show that groundwater has a power-law transit time distribution through all these features, providing a purely mechanistic foundation and explanation for temporal fractal stream chemistry. Power-law residence time distributions are almost always attributed to spatial variability in subsurface transport properties- something we show is not necessary. Since the different geomorphological features considered here are typical of most landscapes, fractal stream chemistry may be universal and is a natural consequence of water exchange across multifaceted interfaces.

Received 26 February 2008; accepted 20 March 2008; published 17 April 2008.

Keywords: groundwater-surface water interactions; modeling; interface; scaling; residence times.

Index Terms: 1820 Hydrology: Floodplain dynamics; 1832 Hydrology: Groundwater transport; 1871 Hydrology: Surface water quality; 4468 Nonlinear Geophysics: Probability distributions, heavy and fat-tailed (3265); 4440 Nonlinear Geophysics: Fractals and multifractals.

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Citation: Cardenas, M. B. (2008), Surface water-groundwater interface geomorphology leads to scaling of residence times, Geophys. Res. Lett., 35, L08402, doi:10.1029/2008GL033753.