Fresh groundwater far off the coast: 3D numerical simulations of groundwater flow at the New Jersey shelf
Geophysics
Final Report Abstract
The characterization of offshore freshened groundwater continues to be a very active area of scientific research. There is growing interest in understanding these systems due their potential as an unconventional water resource. The integrated modelling workflows developed in this project can be further developed to incorporate more data sets for offshore freshened groundwater characterization. Currently, we are building the workflow for generating a 3D model which will be used to conduct more comprehensive numerical simulations of the New Jersey shelf. This 3D model will build on and improve workflows developed in this project by incorporating more robust geostatistical analysis of the available data. Including the use of seismic attributes to model subsurface properties would increase the usefulness of future models. The integration of other geophysical data sets such as electromagnetic data, has become the start of the art of offshore freshened groundwater, and has been inceasingly featured in new studies. Future research can benefit from numerical simulation that are also constrained by such data. Integrating subsurface resistivity data into flow models can provide very robust characterization of offshore freshened groundwater resources. In addtion to more robust, geophysically constrained numerical simulations, the characterization of the onshore-offshore connectivity is essential for understanding the nature of these offshore systems. The transition zone between offshore and onshore is seldomly well constrained. Characterization and monitoring of coastal acquifers can help to provide better boundary conditions of offshore discharge rates for modeling the shelf environment. Offshore freshened groundwater is a potential unconventional water resource. However, to date it has only been encountered as a auxilliary observation in shelf drilling campaigns and the oil industry. The vast global spread of this phenomenon and its potential warrants targeted exploration efforts which are designed specifically to characterize these systems. Such an integrated approach will provide more robust data sets and improve our understanding of this phenomenon and the role it may be able to play in a sustainable and responsible future water management.
Publications
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Seismic interpretation of Miocene sequences & facies distribution model, New Jersey Shelf. IODP Kolloquium, 2017
Thomas, A., Reiche, S., Clauser, C., Riedel, M., Buske, S.
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(2018) Acoustic impedance inversion of seismic data from the New Jersey shelf for delineating porosity distribution of an offshore groundwater reservoir, EGU General Assembly Conference Abstracts:5820
Jusri T., Thomas A., Ghanim A., Reiche S., Buske S.
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(2018) Seismic depth imaging of sequence boundaries beneath the New Jersey shelf, Marine Geophysical Research:1–16
Riedel M., Reiche S., Aßhoff K., Buske S.
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(2018) Simulating Submarine Fresh Groundwater Preservation Offshore New Jersey. American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting. Washington DC, USA, December. AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
Thomas, A., Reiche, S., Clauser, C., Riedel, M., Buske, S.
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(2018) Simulating submarine fresh groundwater preservation offshore New Jersey. IODP Kolloquium. Cologne, Germany
Thomas, A., Reiche, S., Clauser, C., Riedel, M., Buske, S.
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Delineating porosity distribution for an offshore groundwater reservoir at the New Jersey shelf by seismic inversion. EAGE annual conference and exhibition, Copenhagen
Jusri, T., Thomas, A., Ghanim, A., Reiche, S., Buske, S.
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Facies derived compaction trends integrated into a New Jersey Shelf, geological model. IODP Kolloquium, 2018
Thomas, A., Reiche, S., Clauser, C., Riedel, M., Buske, S.
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(2019) Investigating the emplacement of freshwater in continental shelf aquifers, a New Jersey shelf case study, AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts 2019:H23L-2058
Thomas A., Reiche S., Clauser C., Jusri T., Buske S.
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(2019) Numerical Simulation of Submarine Fresh Groundwater Preservation at the New Jersey Shelf. European Geophysical Union, General Meeting. Vienna, Austria. Geophysical Research Abstracts (21)
Thomas, A., Reiche, S., Clauser, C., Riedel, M., Buske, S. (eds.)
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(2019): The fate of submarine fresh groundwater reservoirs at the New Jersey shelf, USA. In Hydrogeol J 27 (7), pp. 2673–2694
Thomas, A. T.; Reiche, S.; Riedel, M.; Clauser, C.
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(2020) Offshore freshened groundwater in continental margins, Reviews of Geophysics
Micallef A., Person M., Berndt C., Bertoni C., Cohen D., Dugan B., Evans R., Haroon A., Hensen, C., Jegen, M., Key, K., Kooi, H., Liebetrau, V., Lofi, J., Mailloux, B. J., Martin‐Nagle, R., Michael, H. A., Müller, T., Schmidt, M., Schwalenberg, K., Trembath‐Reichert, E., Weymer, B., Zhang, Y., Thomas, A.T.
