The geology and hydrogeology of buried bedrock valley aquifers on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia: an overview
Buried bedrock valley aquifers are common across Canada, where multiple glaciations have buried both pre-glacial and Pleistocene valleys. These aquifers are becoming increasingly important as a supply of potable groundwater, for supporting aquatic habitat, and as part of strategies in adapting to a...
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2017
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ftuninewbrunojs:oai:ojs.journals.lib.unb.ca:article/24653 2023-05-15T15:46:43+02:00 The geology and hydrogeology of buried bedrock valley aquifers on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia: an overview Baechler, Fred 2017-10-17 text/html application/pdf https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/ag/article/view/24653 eng eng Atlantic Geoscience Society https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/ag/article/view/24653/30005 https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/ag/article/view/24653/30003 https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/ag/article/view/24653 Copyright (c) 2017 Atlantic Geology Atlantic Geoscience; Vol. 53 (2017); 301 - 324 2564-2987 buried bedrock valley aquifers Cape Breton info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion research-article 2017 ftuninewbrunojs 2022-07-11T11:42:13Z Buried bedrock valley aquifers are common across Canada, where multiple glaciations have buried both pre-glacial and Pleistocene valleys. These aquifers are becoming increasingly important as a supply of potable groundwater, for supporting aquatic habitat, and as part of strategies in adapting to a changing climate. However, in Canada, there are considerable knowledge gaps at national, regional, and local scales, such that many buried bedrock valleys remain unidentified or underexplored. Cape Breton Island provides a hydrogeological view into the roots of an ancient mountain range, now exhumed, glaciated, deglaciated, and tectonically inactive. Since the Cretaceous, a variety of geological processes have formed several buried bedrock valley aquifers over the island. These aquifers are important in providing municipal and commercial groundwater supplies, controlling mine dewatering, protection of salmonids, design and monitoring of waste disposal sites, and geotechnical investigations for infrastructure design. Of 150 sites assessed, 61% provided evidence of buried aquifers comprising unconsolidated sand and gravel of Cretaceous, Pleistocene, and Holocene ages. These sites provided the basis for five conceptual, 3-D hydrogeological block models. Three hydrogeological case studies provided further insight into the functioning of two of these models. Future studies should identify and characterize aquifers in high demand areas and/or those that support important riverine ecosystems. Research should focus on aquifer properties, groundwater-stream interaction, and the impact of changing climate with sea-level rise. Article in Journal/Newspaper Breton Island University of New Brunswick: Centre for Digital Scholarship Journals Canada Breton Island ENVELOPE(141.383,141.383,-66.800,-66.800) Atlantic Geology 53 301 324 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of New Brunswick: Centre for Digital Scholarship Journals |
op_collection_id |
ftuninewbrunojs |
language |
English |
topic |
buried bedrock valley aquifers Cape Breton |
spellingShingle |
buried bedrock valley aquifers Cape Breton Baechler, Fred The geology and hydrogeology of buried bedrock valley aquifers on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia: an overview |
topic_facet |
buried bedrock valley aquifers Cape Breton |
description |
Buried bedrock valley aquifers are common across Canada, where multiple glaciations have buried both pre-glacial and Pleistocene valleys. These aquifers are becoming increasingly important as a supply of potable groundwater, for supporting aquatic habitat, and as part of strategies in adapting to a changing climate. However, in Canada, there are considerable knowledge gaps at national, regional, and local scales, such that many buried bedrock valleys remain unidentified or underexplored. Cape Breton Island provides a hydrogeological view into the roots of an ancient mountain range, now exhumed, glaciated, deglaciated, and tectonically inactive. Since the Cretaceous, a variety of geological processes have formed several buried bedrock valley aquifers over the island. These aquifers are important in providing municipal and commercial groundwater supplies, controlling mine dewatering, protection of salmonids, design and monitoring of waste disposal sites, and geotechnical investigations for infrastructure design. Of 150 sites assessed, 61% provided evidence of buried aquifers comprising unconsolidated sand and gravel of Cretaceous, Pleistocene, and Holocene ages. These sites provided the basis for five conceptual, 3-D hydrogeological block models. Three hydrogeological case studies provided further insight into the functioning of two of these models. Future studies should identify and characterize aquifers in high demand areas and/or those that support important riverine ecosystems. Research should focus on aquifer properties, groundwater-stream interaction, and the impact of changing climate with sea-level rise. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Baechler, Fred |
author_facet |
Baechler, Fred |
author_sort |
Baechler, Fred |
title |
The geology and hydrogeology of buried bedrock valley aquifers on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia: an overview |
title_short |
The geology and hydrogeology of buried bedrock valley aquifers on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia: an overview |
title_full |
The geology and hydrogeology of buried bedrock valley aquifers on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia: an overview |
title_fullStr |
The geology and hydrogeology of buried bedrock valley aquifers on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia: an overview |
title_full_unstemmed |
The geology and hydrogeology of buried bedrock valley aquifers on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia: an overview |
title_sort |
geology and hydrogeology of buried bedrock valley aquifers on cape breton island, nova scotia: an overview |
publisher |
Atlantic Geoscience Society |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/ag/article/view/24653 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(141.383,141.383,-66.800,-66.800) |
geographic |
Canada Breton Island |
geographic_facet |
Canada Breton Island |
genre |
Breton Island |
genre_facet |
Breton Island |
op_source |
Atlantic Geoscience; Vol. 53 (2017); 301 - 324 2564-2987 |
op_relation |
https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/ag/article/view/24653/30005 https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/ag/article/view/24653/30003 https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/ag/article/view/24653 |
op_rights |
Copyright (c) 2017 Atlantic Geology |
container_title |
Atlantic Geology |
container_volume |
53 |
container_start_page |
301 |
op_container_end_page |
324 |
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1766381416157806592 |