What makes up the Ogallala Aquifer?
Ogallala Aquiferinteractive map The Ogallala Aquifer is the largest aquifer in the United States and is a major aquifer of Texas underlying much of the High Plains region. The aquifer consists of sand, gravel, clay, and silt and has a maximum thickness of 800 feet. Freshwater saturated thickness averages 95 feet.
What fills the Ogallala Aquifer?
As with most aquifers it receives recharge [new] water primarily through infiltration of rain and snow melt from the surface. The recharge water fills fractures and interstices (open spaces between rock particles) in the rock.
How did the High Plains Aquifer form?
The Quaternary sediments consist of unconsolidated gravel, sand, silt, and clay deposited by streams or sand and silt deposited by wind. These deposits form part of the High Plains aquifer where they are saturated and are in contact with underlying aquifer units of Tertiary age.
What is the primary source of water for the Ogallala Aquifer?
Research has shown that these shallow, temporary wetlands are a primary source of recharge for the Ogallala Aquifer, contributing up to 95 percent of the water flowing to the aquifer and also improving the quality of that water.
What aquifer is under the Ogallala Aquifer?
Lower Cretaceous units form two separate subcrops within the Texas High Plains, the Edwards-Trinity (High Plains) and the Edwards-Trinity (Plateau). Underlying these three aquifers and much of the Ogallala are Triassic (Dockum aquifer) and Permian formations.
Why is the Ogallala Aquifer being depleted?
Global warming is likely to make droughts across the Ogallala region longer lasting and more intense over the next 50 years. However, current extraction for irrigation far exceeds recharge in this aquifer, and climate change places additional pressure on this critical water resource.
What is happening to the Ogallala Aquifer?
Today the Ogallala Aquifer is being depleted at an annual volume equivalent to 18 Colorado Rivers. Although precipitation and river systems are recharging a few parts of the northern aquifer, in most places nature cannot keep up with human demands.
What happens when the Ogallala Aquifer runs out?
The Ogallala Aquifer, which has been sustaining the Great Plains’ agriculture since the end of the Dust Bowl, has run out of half its resources already. When it runs out, it will take 6,000 years for it to be replenished. The grasslands of the Great Plains in the early 1900s were transformed into land used for crops.
When was the Ogallala Aquifer formed?
approximately three to six million years ago
The aquifer consists of sands, gravel, silts, and clay sediments that were deposited as part of ancient river systems approximately three to six million years ago during the Neogene geologic time period.
Why does the Great Plains have to use water from the Ogallala Aquifer?
The grain-growing region in the High Plains of America—known as America’s breadbasket—relies entirely on the Ogallala Aquifer. The High Plains region—where the aquifer lies—relies on the aquifer for residential and industrial uses, but the aquifer’s water is used primarily for agricultural irrigation.
What happened to the Ogallala Aquifer?
How is the Ogallala Aquifer used?
Water from the Ogallala Aquifer is used mainly for irrigation and evapotranspiration (S. G. Robson and E. R. Banta, 1995). Water drawn from the Ogallala supplies agricultural, domestic, industrial, mining, and livestock needs.
What is the main importance of the Ogallala Aquifer?
– I love a good glass of water – What is the significance of the Ogallala underground aquifer? – Amazing Facts about Ogallala Aquifer – A Knowledge Archive Facts Archives – A Knowledge Archive amazing-facts-about-ogallala-aquiferMar 21, 2014 · The Ogallala Aquifer is the main s
Why is the Ogallala Aquifer is important to people?
Tragedy of the commons: A tragedy of the commons occurs when a resource which is freely available to all,but the management of which is the responsibility of no one,…
Is an Ogallala Aquifer a renewable water source?
Water is being used from this aquifer 100 times faster than it is being replaced with recharge water from its watershed. Therefore, it is nonrenewable (at this pumping rate). withdrawals for public/municipal use are ______________? What % of freshwater on Earth is surface water? Of the water on Earth, what % of water is classified as saltwater?
What is happening in the Ogallala aquifers?
What is happening to the amount of water in the Ogallala Aquifer? Today the Ogallala Aquifer is being depleted at an annual volume equivalent to 18 Colorado Rivers. Although precipitation and river systems are recharging a few parts of the northern aquifer, in most places nature cannot keep up with human demands.