Revisiting analytical solutions for steady interface flow in subsea aquifers: Aquitard salinity effects

Adrian Werner, Neville Robinson

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

14 Citations (Scopus)
52 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Existing analytical solutions for the distribution of fresh groundwater in subsea aquifers presume that the overlying offshore aquitard, represented implicitly, contains seawater. Here, we consider the case where offshore fresh groundwater is the result of freshwater discharge from onshore aquifers, and neglect paleo-freshwater sources. A recent numerical modeling investigation, involving explicit simulation of the offshore aquitard, demonstrates that offshore aquitards more likely contain freshwater in areas of upward freshwater leakage to the sea. We integrate this finding into the existing analytical solutions by providing an alternative formulation for steady interface flow in subsea aquifers, whereby the salinity in the offshore aquitard can be chosen. The new solution, taking the aquitard salinity as that of freshwater, provides a closer match to numerical modeling results in which the aquitard is represented explicitly.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)117-126
Number of pages10
JournalAdvances in Water Resources
Volume116
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jun 2018

Keywords

  • subsea aquifer
  • aquitards
  • freshwater
  • aquitard salinity

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