RAPID: Investigating spatiotemporal groundwater variations in the Wasatch Front using geophysical methods

该RAPID项目侧重于地球物理数据收集，以捕获犹他州北部2023年春季异常融化的径流和地下水流量。今年的最大雪深超过了历史平均水平的200%，并且是在该地区经历了20多年的特大干旱之后。目标是测试地球物理技术捕捉物理水文过程的能力，以改进对大盐湖（GSL）及其湿地生态系统的水收支的估计。过去十年的研究表明，瓦萨奇山的积雪在春季融化，在成为地表水之前被土壤水分和地下水分开。地球物理观测可以为水文系统提供独立的约束条件。该项目旨在证明地球物理数据是唯一适合量化季节性雪、土壤湿度、地下水以及水库和大盐湖的地表水储存的数量和时间尺度的数据。该项目将有助于更好地了解水从山区流向山谷的路径，并可能有助于指导用水和消费的决策/政策制定。本项目支持本科生参与数据收集和分析。通过该实验收集的数据将被归档，并通过SAGE-GAGE设施和犹他大学数据存储库公开提供。RAPID项目将在高空间分辨率下产生新的连续地震和幕式重力和电子电阻率层析成像（ERT）观测结果，用于确定这些地球物理技术在调查瓦萨奇山/盐湖谷水文系统中水的运输和储存方面的优势和局限性。监测地下地震速度的变化将有助于调查地下水和土壤湿度的变化。利用重力和大地测量地表变形模型来确定不同但水文相关（物理上接近）制度下的水团变化是一种新的和潜在的有价值的技术，可以监测从山区到山谷的水团运输。ERT监测可以用来探测大盐湖边缘的淡水/盐水界面在融雪进入山谷时的迁移。通过利用地球物理观测的互补灵敏度，拟议的项目将提高瓦萨奇山脉和盐湖谷测量的空间和时间分辨率。本项目由地球物理计划、水文科学计划和地球科学部资助。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This RAPID project focuses on geophysical data collection to capture the runoff and groundwater flows from the anomalous 2023 Spring melt in Northern Utah. This year’s snow depth maximum is greater than 200% of the historical average and comes after more than 20 years of megadrought conditions for the region. The goal is to test the ability of geophysical techniques to capture the physical hydrological processes to improve estimates of the water budget of the Great Salt Lake (GSL) and the ecosystems of its wetlands. Research in the last decade demonstrates that Wasatch Mountain snowpack melts in the spring and is split between soil moisture and groundwater before becoming available as surface water. Geophysical observations can provide independent constraints to the hydrological system. This project aims to demonstrate that the geophysics data are uniquely suited to quantify the amount and time scales of water storage in seasonal snow, soil moisture, groundwater, and ultimately surface water storage in reservoirs and the Great Salt Lake. This project will contribute to a better understanding of the path that water takes from the mountains to the valley and may potentially help to guide decision/policy making for water use and consumption. The project supports undergraduates participating in data collection and analysis. The data collected through this experiment will be archived and made openly available through the SAGE-GAGE facility and the University of Utah data repository.The RAPID project will yield new continuous seismic and episodic gravity and electronic resistivity tomography (ERT) observations at a high spatial resolution that will be used to determine the advantages and limitations of these geophysical techniques for investigating the transport and storage of water in the Wasatch Mountain/Salt Lake Valley hydrological system. Monitoring subsurface seismic velocity changes will allow investigations of groundwater and soil moisture variation. Using gravity along with geodetic surface deformation modeling to determine changes in water mass over different but hydrologically connected (and physically proximal) regimes is a new and potentially valuable technique to monitor water mass transport from the mountains to the valley. ERT monitoring can be used to detect the migration of the fresh/saline interface at the edge of the Great Salt Lake as the snowmelt moves into the valley. By leveraging the complementary sensitivity of the geophysics observations, the proposed project will advance the spatial and temporal resolution of the measurements in the Wasatch Mountains and the Salt Lake Valley. This project is supported by the Geophysics Program, the Hydrological Sciences Program, and the Division of Earth Sciences.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.