Reviews of Geophysics | 2019
Utilizing the impact of earth and atmospheric tides on groundwater systems: a review reveals the future potential
Abstract
16 Groundwater extraction is increasing rapidly in many areas of the world, causing serious impacts 17 such as falling water tables, ground surface subsidence, water quality degradation and reduction 18 of stream baseflow on which many ecosystems depend. Methods for understanding and predict19 ing the impacts of groundwater extraction generally lack detailed spatial and temporal knowledge 20 of the subsurface hydrogeomechanical properties. This review provides a comprehensive under21 standing of Earth and atmospheric tides and their impact on subsurface pore pressure. First, we 22 evaluate the global occurrence of Earth and atmospheric tides. Then, we illustrate their impact 23 on the groundwater response and connect this with the theory of poroelasticity, which under24 pins quantitative analyses. Finally, we review methods which utilize these impacts to character25 ize groundwater systems and to quantify their hydrogeomechanical properties. We conclude by 26 highlighting their potential as passive and low-cost investigation techniques and by outlining the 27 research and developments required to progress and make analyses readily available. Thus, hy28 drogeomechanical properties of subsurface systems could be obtained at unprecedented spatial 29 and temporal resolution, adding additional value to commonly acquired groundwater and atmo30 spheric pressure data. 31