HYDROGEOLOGY: TEACHING GROUNDWATER HYDROLOGY OUTSIDE THE ENGINEERING BOX

Too often hydrogeology courses taught in geology departments resemble similar courses taught through civil engineering departments, yet this approach seems to minimize significant contributions that geological assessment and modeling can offer. Specifically, the influence that sedimentologic heterogeneity has on groundwater flow and contaminant transport is often overlooked by practitioners and modelers, where simplifying assumptions of homogeneity or homogeneous layering are opted. Though we need to teach students standard approaches to groundwater characterization (e.g., aquifer test analysis, flow nets, and groundwater modeling), we need to find ways to show students how other geoscience classes (e.g. sedimentology and stratigraphy, structural geology) can be directly applied to understanding and modeling groundwater. Two exercises provide examples of how stratigraphic characterization of aquifers can be incorporated into groundwater courses. The first guides students through evaluation of a pumping test at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. In this exercise, excellent geologic data from core and well logs shows that simplifying assumptions in typical pumping test analysis fall short of describing properties of the aquifer. Students not only gain practice using standard methods for pumping test analysis, but they also gain insight into how the stratigraphy at the site influences the aquifer test. The second example comes from analysis of large-scale stratigraphic features on regional groundwater flow. Coarse-grained incised valley fill sediments in eastern San Joaquin Valley fluvial fan deposits act as a pipeline for groundwater flow and deep aquifer recharge. A simple modeling exercise allows students to evaluate the potential impact of such features. A compendium of such examples is needed in order to facilitate a new direction in hydrogeology education.