Recharge and aquifer response: Northern Guam Lens Aquifer, Guam, Mariana Islands

• Published in: Journal of hydrology (Amsterdam) Vol. 260; no. 1; pp. 231 - 254
• Main Authors: Jocson, J.M.U, Jenson, J.W, Contractor, D.N
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 15-03-2002; Elsevier Science
• Subjects: Carbonate islands; Coastal aquifers; Earth sciences; Earth, ocean, space; Exact sciences and technology; Ground water models; Guam; Hydrogeology; Hydrology. Hydrogeology; Island aquifers; Karst hydrology; Guam; Mariana Islands; Micronesia; Carbonate islands; Guam; Karst hydrology; Island aquifers; Ground water models; Coastal aquifers; models; rainfall; carbonate rocks; atmospheric precipitation; ground water; water table; ground-water recharge; digital simulation; evapotranspiration; karst; finite element analysis; coastal environment; Oceania; sedimentary rocks; percolation; aquifers; conductivity; limestone; discharge; boundary conditions; evaporation; seasonal variations; hydrographs
• ISSN: 0022-1694; 1879-2707
• DOI: 10.1016/S0022-1694(01)00617-5

The Northern Guam Lens Aquifer is an island karst aquifer in uplifted young, highly conductive limestone. Calculations of recharge based on differences between daily rainfall and daily pan evaporation suggest that the maximum annual mass of water delivered to the freshwater lens is about 67% of mean annual rainfall. Hydrographs of daily well-level responses plotted against daily rainfall indicate that the rate at which water is delivered to the lens is a function of rainfall intensity and the relative saturation of the vadose zone. Together, these variables determine the degree to which stormwater is shunted into fast flow through preferred pathways that bypass the bedrock matrix, rather than percolating slowly through the bedrock matrix.
Data from the 40-year interval from 1956 to 1995 show that some 17% of rainfall on northern Guam arrives in small amounts (<0.6
cm/day). Most of this light rainfall is probably lost to evapotranspiration. At least another 20% of total rainfall on Guam arrives at very high intensities (>5.0
cm/day), which tend to promote fast flow at the expense of percolation. Rapid recovery of the water table from rapid recharge suggests that the lens either takes such recharge into storage very rapidly, discharges it rapidly without taking it into storage, or some combination of both. Significant vadose buffering of recharge to the lens is indicated by the fact that simulations assuming that the recharge from precipitation received in any given month is transmitted to the lens during the same month consistently over-predict observed peak mean monthly water levels and under-predict the minima.