Best groundwater song ever? “Once in a Lifetime” by the Talking Heads?

Contributed by Kevin Befus, University of Austin – Texas
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If there has ever been a song for hydrogeologists, “Once in a Lifetime” by the Talking Heads is the best. Here’s why I have taken this song on as my hydrogeologic theme song.

But first, here is a link to the music video, in all of its early 1980’s glory:

Music is great because the listener can interpret the music and lyrics with their biases. My bias in this song is not about the drudgery of life (1) . It is about water which is everywhere in this song, and maybe that means we humans see water as mundane, everywhere and maybe a bit menacing. I fully encourage you to evaluate your life through this song, but let’s get on to the hydrogeology!

Where does this song get the hydrogeology right? I was surprised.
“Water flowing underground” – groundwater moves and is not still (but can be super slow), except maybe in stagnation points that may also be dynamic (2).

“same as it ever was” – groundwater responds over long time scales, but may not always be in the same place (3) . Even still, water is eventually renewed and continues on its many paths through the water cycle, same as it ever was.

“Into the blue again” – back to the ocean, with an average retreat of 4000 yrs (4) ; shout out to the submarine groundwater discharge community (5)!

“After the money’s gone” – water can be something we retreat to as a source of comfort or leisure, but here’s an idea: what do we do with water problems when the money is gone? How do economics affect water resources? Do we turn off the pumps and let water flow to the blue again, L.A. (6)?

“Water dissolving and water removing” – shout out to hydrogeochemists and transport modelers (7) ; yes, you, Chebotarev (8)!

“There is water at the bottom of the ocean…remove the water from the bottom of the ocean” – there sure is, and more than we thought (9)! Maybe a water resource that will be tapped more and more.

“Under the rocks and stones” – well, there is water under rocks and stones, but also inside, brushing but sadly missing porosity and saturation. This doesn’t mean I don’t like this lyric.

“Silent water” – if there is any water on Earth that is silent (and that is unlikely, depending on the definition of what sound is), groundwater would be a good place to imagine a silent water droplet.

The underlying theme of passing time is what really gets me. Once in a lifetime, this water is flowing underground. What a great way to introduce the timescales of groundwater flow! Or, even begin a lesson on groundwater, ranging from basics to interactions at the coast or human impacts? How precious is this water if it can only be replenished once in a lifetime?

May we someday not have to say to ourselves, “my god, what have we done?”

1. http://www.allmusic.com/song/once-in-a-lifetime-mt0011967560
2. Gomez, J. D., and J. L. Wilson (2013), Age distributions and dynamically changing hydrologic systems: Exploring topography-driven flow, Water Resour. Res., 49(3), 1503-1522.
3. Gleeson, T., Y. Wada, M. F. Bierkens, and L. P. van Beek (2012), Water balance of global aquifers revealed by groundwater footprint, Nature, 488(7410), 197-200, doi: 10.1038/nature11295.
4. https://www.e-education.psu.edu/earth540/content/c3_p7.html
5. Burnett, W. C., H. Bokuniewicz, M. Huettel, W. S. Moore, and M. Taniguchi (2003), Groundwater and pore water inputs to the coastal zone, Biogeochemistry, 66(1-2), 3-33, doi: 10.1023/B:BIOG.0000006066.21240.53.
6. http://www.wrd.org/engineering/seawater-intrusion-los-angeles.php
7. http://ponce.sdsu.edu/the_salinity_of_groundwaters.html
8. Chebotarev, I. I. 1955. Metamorphism of natural waters in the crust of weathering. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, Vol. 8, 22-48, 137-170, 198-212
9. Post, V. E. A., J. Groen, H. Kooi, M. Person, S. Ge, and W. M. Edmunds (2013), Offshore fresh groundwater reserves as a global phenomenon, Nature, 504(7478), 71-78, doi: 10.1038/nature12858.