Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

A 700-Year History Of Groundwater Recharge In The Drylands Of Nw China, John B. Gates, W. Mike Edmunds, Jinzhu Ma, Paul R. Sheppard

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

A 700-year semi-quantitative history of diffuse groundwater recharge in the Badain Jaran Desert (Inner Mongolia) is proposed on the basis of solute data from multiple unsaturated zone groundwater profiles using mass balance of chloride to establish recharge rates and profile chronologies. Four relatively humid (1330–1430, 1500–1620, 1700–1780 and 1950– 1990) and three relatively arid phases (1430–1500, 1620–1700 and 1900–1950) are discernable across the profiles. The recharge history broadly reflects multidecadal to centurial timescale precipitation changes in the northern Tibetan Plateau and suggests that variations in East Asian Summer Monsoon intensity affect desert recharge rates. Uncertainties in the records owing to …