WHAT IS KNOWN AND UNKNOWN ABOUT HAWAII’S OCEAN ISLAND HYDROLOGY

In Hawaii, volcanic structures must control regional hydrology, yet important questions related to groundwater storage and flow remain unanswered, and recent deep drilling results on Hawaii Island underscore the fact that the prevalent conceptual model for Hawaii’s ocean island hydrology is not applicable over broad regions of the state.

Two currently active projects at the University of Hawaii are working to better characterize Hawaii’s volcanic hydrology. The NSF-EPSCoR ‘Ike Wai project is using a multidisciplinary approach that includes groundwater chemistry, microbiology, and geophysics to address outstanding questions in aquifers of West Hawaii and South Oahu. The DOE-funded Play Fairway project is using groundwater temperature and chemistry from wells across the state as a potential indicator of subsurface heat. This presentation will introduce both projects, and show preliminary results focused on groundwater chemistry.