WaterUnderground

Groundwater

The Groundwater Wetlands and Bogs Study Group

The Groundwater Wetlands and Bogs Study Group

The Groundwater Wetlands and Blogs Study Group is an unfunded, voluntary collaboration of professionals, formed in December 2012, focused on groundwater wetlands, bogs, and related systems.  The Study Group has about 250 members in 39 countries. Study Group members communicate primarily through a disciplined Yahoo Group listserve.  We are not a social network nor are …[Read More]

Are we in the age of postmodern groundwater?

Are we in the age of postmodern groundwater?

My humanities colleagues and friends are always talking about postmodernism or pomo for short (see this funny satire). I’ve been thinking a lot lately about ‘modern groundwater’ (stay tuned for a cool paper), so I started wondering if there is ‘postmodern groundwater’. Modern groundwater is groundwater recharged since the huge spike it tritium in the …[Read More]

Groundwater is NOT photogenic!

Groundwater is NOT photogenic!

One of the first things I realized when designing this blog was that groundwater is not photogenic, in the extreme. Seriously: I dare every hydrogeologist to go to google images and search  ‘groundwater‘.  You find something like this: I am not saying that I dislike conceptual models or think they are ugly.  I actually quite …[Read More]

Communicating research results through comics: is the permeability of crystalline rock in the shallow crust related to depth, lithology, or tectonic setting?

Communicating research results through comics: is the permeability of crystalline rock in the shallow crust related to depth, lithology, or tectonic setting?

Mark Ranjram, a Masters student in my research group, wrote a paper on crystalline permeability that is coming out in a special edition of Geofluids on ‘Crustal Permeability’ early in 2015 (other cool papers in early view here). Here is Mark’s awesome response when I asked him if he wanted to write a plain language …[Read More]

Is groundwater depletion keeping California fruit and veggies cheap during the severe drought?

Is groundwater depletion keeping California fruit and veggies cheap during the severe drought?

Food prices in the United States are increasing slightly but not as significantly as one might expect given the severe drought in California. Margret Munro, a science journalist with Postmedia, recently asked me a great question: is groundwater depletion keeping California fruit and veggies cheap during the severe drought? Following up on her article, here …[Read More]

Reducing water scarcity possible by 2050

Reducing water scarcity possible by 2050

Press release from McGill University of our research published yesterday in Nature Geoscience. Water scarcity is not a problem just for the developing world. In California, legislators are currently proposing a $7.5 billion emergency water plan to their voters; and U.S. federal officials last year warned residents of Arizona and Nevada that they could face …[Read More]