Three-dimensional Geomodeling to Identify Spatial Relations Between Lithostratigraphy and Porosity in the Karst Carbonate Biscayne Aquifer, Southeastern Florida

Three-dimensional Geomodeling to Identify Spatial Relations Between Lithostratigraphy and Porosity in the Karst Carbonate Biscayne Aquifer, Southeastern Florida
Author: Richard Westcott
Publisher:
Total Pages: 68
Release: 2014
Genre: Biscayne Aquifer (Fla.)
ISBN:

In southeastern Florida, the majority of drinking water comes from the Biscayne Aquifer. This aquifer is comprised of heterogeneous limestones, sandstones, sand, shell and clayey sand with zones of very high permeability. Visualizing the spatial variations in lithology, porosity and permeability of heterogeneous aquifers, like the Biscayne, can be difficult using traditional methods of investigation. Using the Roxar IRAP RMS software multi-layered 3D conceptual geomodels of the lithology, cyclostratigraphy and porosity were created in a portion of the Biscayne Aquifer. The models were built using published data from borehole geophysical measurements, core samples, and thin sections. Spatial relations between lithology, cyclostratigraphy, porosity, and preferential flow zones were compared and contrasted to better understand how these geologic features were inter-related. The models show local areas of differing porosity within and cross-cutting different cycles and lithologies. Porosity in the Biscayne Aquifer study area follows a hierarchy attributed to lithofacies with a pattern of increasing porosity for the high frequency cycles. This modeling improves understanding of the distribution and interconnectedness of preferential flow zones, and is thus an invaluable tool for future studies of groundwater flow and groundwater contamination in the Biscayne Aquifer.

Quantitative Comparison of 2D Porosity and Pore Geometry Between the Upper Castle Hayne Aquifer, North Carolina, and the Biscayne Aquifer, Florida, Using Image and Geospatial Analysis

Quantitative Comparison of 2D Porosity and Pore Geometry Between the Upper Castle Hayne Aquifer, North Carolina, and the Biscayne Aquifer, Florida, Using Image and Geospatial Analysis
Author: Alexander R. Culpepper
Publisher:
Total Pages: 157
Release: 2012
Genre: Aquifers
ISBN:

Karst aquifers are vital sources of groundwater for domestic and industrial use in many parts of the world. To sustain rising population throughout the southeastern United States, karst aquifers are increasingly exploited to provide the populace a clean and reliable water resource. The moldic Spring Garden Member of the Castle Hayne Limestone and the vuggy Miami Limestone Formation of the Biscayne aquifer systems are two highly productive karst aquifers that provide critical water resources to millions of people in eastern North Carolina and southeastern Florida, respectively. In order to improve our understanding of karst media, a detailed investigation of 2D porosity and pore geometry of Castle Hayne and Biscayne aquifers was undertaken using image and geospatial analysis. The goal of this study was to compare and contrast the pore structure of moldic and vuggy karst aquifers by quantifying 2D porosity and pore geometry in borehole televiewer, slabbed core, and thin-section images. GIS provided an integrated environment for statistical and geospatial analysis, making it the ideal tool for identifying and extracting pore structures from the digital images. Macropore area and perimeter were derived from televiewer, core and thin-section images. These geometric attributes were used to calculate a shape measure. The shape measure provided additional insight into the potential for interconnectivity and geometry of pores across the multiple scales of observation. Results show that both pore area and perimeter for the Castle Hayne and Biscayne aquifers can be described by exponential distributions. The moldic Castle Hayne aquifer has larger pore perimeters, when similar pore areas are compared to those extracted from the vuggy Biscayne aquifer. The complexity of shapes are essentially identical at smaller scales of observation for pores derived from both the Castle Hayne and Biscayne aquifers. However, as the scale of observation increases, the difference between the pore geometries of macropores from the Castle Hayne and Biscayne aquifers also increases. At the two largest scales of observation, pores from the Castle Hayne are more complex than pores with identical areas from the Biscayne. Results also reveal that the scale of measurement plays a critical role in interpreting quantitative macropore structure within karst aquifers, thus requiring an approach that takes into account the scale of measurement of the macropore geometry. As scale of observation increases from thin-section to borehole image, pore size and pore complexity increase considerably over several orders of magnitude. Such quantitative measures can lead to a better understanding of porosity structure in karst aquifers that can be useful for designing and running groundwater flow models and assessing transport mechanisms in karst media. Most importantly, this study provides a quantitative assessment of the distribution of macropore geometry in karst aquifers with different structures and porosity.

Three-Dimensional Modeling with Geoscientific Information Systems

Three-Dimensional Modeling with Geoscientific Information Systems
Author: A. Keith Turner
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 474
Release: 1992
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 9780792315506

Geoscientific modelling has some unique requirements. Modern geological applications require increasingly quantitative and accurate rock property characerizations within the three-dimensional subsurface environment. this problem differs from that faced by most other fields due to a variety of technocal and economic constriants. Three-dimensional geoscientific modelling often relies on complex stochastic concepts and thus requires the extraction of information from large multiparameter data sets, and the representation and modification of complex, and uncertain geo-objects of interest.

The Engineering Geology and Hydrology of Karst Terrains

The Engineering Geology and Hydrology of Karst Terrains
Author: Barry F. Beck
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 818
Release: 2020-12-18
Genre: Science
ISBN: 100015078X

Engineers from around the world recount in this volume their successes and failures in attempting to deal with unique and quixotic landscapes.

Multi-scale Characterization of Dissolution Structures and Porosity Distribution in the Upper Part of the Biscayne Aquifer Using Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR)

Multi-scale Characterization of Dissolution Structures and Porosity Distribution in the Upper Part of the Biscayne Aquifer Using Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR)
Author: Gregory J. Mount
Publisher:
Total Pages: 179
Release: 2014
Genre: Ground penetrating radar
ISBN:

The karst Biscayne Aquifer is characterized by a heterogeneous spatial arrangement of porosity, making hydrogeological characterization difficult. In this dissertation, I investigate the use of ground penetrating radar (GPR), for understanding the spatial distribution of porosity variability in the Miami Limestone presented as a compilation of studies where scale of measurement is progressively increased to account for varying dimensions of dissolution features. In Chapter 2, GPR in zero offset acquisition mode is used to investigate the 2-D distribution of porosity and dielectric permittivity in a block of Miami Limestone at the laboratory scale (