Linking a conceptual karst hydrogeologic model of the Biscayne aquifer to ground-water flow simulations within the Greater Everglades from Everglades National Park to Biscayne National Park-Phase 1

Project Investigator: Kevin Cunningham Project Personnel: Melinda Lohmann, Michael Wacker, G. Lynn Wingard, Edward Robinson, Joann Dixon, Michael C. Sukop, Barclay Shoemaker, H. Allen Curran, Cameron Walker Project Start Date: 2005 End Date: 2011 Recent Funding: (FY10) ENP CESI, USGS GE PES, (FY09) ENP CESI, USGS GE PES, (FY08) ENP CESI, USGS GE PES, (FY07) ENP CESI, USGS GE PES, (FY06) ENP CESI, USGS GE PES Work Plans Project Summaries Data Metadata Publications Project Location Map

Research is needed to determine how planned Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) seepage control actions within the triple-porosity karstic Biscayne aquifer in the general area of Northeast Shark Slough will affect ground-water flows and recharge between the Everglades wetlands and Biscayne Bay. A fundamental problem in the simulation of karst ground-water flow and solute transport is how best to represent aquifer heterogeneity as defined by the spatial distribution of porosity, permeability, and storage. The triple porosity of the Biscayne aquifer is principally: (1) matrix of interparticle and separate-vug porosity, providing much of the storage and, under dynamic conditions, diffuse-carbonate flow; (2) touching-vug porosity creating stratiform ground-water flow passageways; and (3) less common conduit porosity composed mainly of bedding plane vugs, thin solution pipes, and cavernous vugs. The objectives of this project are to: (1) build on the Lake Belt area hydrogeologic framework (recently completed by the principal investigator), mainly using cyclostratigraphy and digital optical borehole images to map porosity types and develop the triple-porosity karst framework between the Everglades wetlands and Biscayne Bay; and (2) develop procedures for numerical simulation of ground-water flow within the Biscayne aquifer multi-porosity system.

Work Plans

• 2006
• 2007
• 2008
• 2009
• 2010

Project Summaries

• 2006
• 2007

Data

Metadata

• Linking a conceptual karst hydrogeologic model of the Biscayne aquifer to ground-water flow simulations from Everglades National Park to Biscayne National Park - Phase 1 (project metadata)

Publications

Animations

• 3-D animated fly-through of a very well-connected touching-vug burrow porosity from the upper part of the Biscayne aquifer in Miami-Dade Co.

Book/Chapter from Book

• Chapter 28 - Carbonate aquifers (from Trace fossils as indicators of sedimentary environments - Developments in Sedimentology, available from the ScienceDirect website)

Fact Sheets

• Borehole geophysical logging program: incorporating new and existing techniques in hydrologic studies (Fact Sheet 2008-3098, available from the U.S. Geological Survey website)

Journal Articles

• NMR imaging of fluid exchange between macropores and matrix in eogenetic karst
• Application of ground-penetrating radar, digital optical borehole images, and cores for characterization of porosity hydraulic conductivity and paleokarst in the Biscayne aquifer, southeastern Florida, USA
• Effects of turbulence on hydraulic heads and parameter sensitivities in preferential groundwater flow layers
• Evaluation of permeability and non-Darcy flow in vuggy macroporous limestone aquifer samples with lattice Boltzmann methods (available from the Wiley Online Library)
• Geostatistical Borehole Image-Based Mapping of Karst-Carbonate Aquifer Pores (available from the Wiley Online Library)
• Lattice Boltzmann Methods Applied to Large-Scale Three-Dimensional Virtual Cores Constructed from Digital Optical Borehole Images of a the Karst Carbonate Biscayne Aquifer in Southeastern Florida (available from the Wiley Online Library)
• New method for quantification of vuggy porosity from digital optical borehole images as applied to the karstic Pleistocene limestone of the Biscayne aquifer, southeastern Florida
• Pathogen and chemical transport in the karst limestone of the Biscayne aquifer: 1. Revised conceptualization of groundwater flow
• Pathogen and chemical transport in the karst limestone of the Biscayne aquifer: 3. Use of microspheres to estimate the transport potential of Cryptosporidium parvum oocysts
• Prominence of ichnologically influenced macroporosity in the karst Biscayne aquifer: Stratiform "super-K" zones

Open File Reports

• Megaporosity and Permeability of Thalassinoides-Dominated Ichnofabrics in the Cretaceous Karst-Carbonate Edwards-Trinity Aquifer System, Texas (OFR 2012-1021, available from the U.S. Geological Survey website)
• Multiple Technologies Applied to Characterization of the Porosity and Permeability of the Biscayne Aquifer, Florida (OFR 2011-1037, available from the U.S. Geological Survey website)
• U.S. Geological Survey Science Support Strategy for Biscayne National Park and Surrounding Areas in Southeastern Florida (OFR 2007-1288, available from the U.S. Geological Survey website)

Papers

• The Biscayne Aquifer of Southeastern Florida (available from Western Kentucky University website)

Proceedings

• Visualization of groundwater flow within touching-vug and matrix porosity in an eogenetic karst aquifer (available from Western Kentucky University website)

Scientific Investigations Maps

• Hydrogeology and Ground-Water Flow at Levee 31N, Miami-Dade County, Florida, July 2003 to May 2004 (Scientific Investigations Map I-2846)

Scientific Investigations Reports

• A Cyclostratigraphic and Borehole-Geophysical Approach to Development of a Three-Dimensional Conceptual Hydrogeologic Model of the Karstic Biscayne Aquifer, Southeastern Florida (SIR 2005-5235)
• Modeling Ground-water Flow and Solute Transport in Karst with Lattice Boltzmann Methods (excerpt from Scientific Investigations Report 2008-5023, available from the U.S. Geological Survey website)

Water Resources Investigations Reports

• Characterization of Aquifer Heterogeneity Using Cyclostratigraphy and Geophysical Methods in the Upper Part of the Karstic Biscayne Aquifer, Southeastern Florida (WRI 03-4208)