Groundwater compartmentalisation: a water table height and geochemical analysis of the structural controls on the subdivision of a major aquifer, the Sherwood Sandstone, Merseyside, UK

摘要

Compartmentalisation, the subdivision of an aquifer into discrete and relatively isolated units, may be of critical importance for the protection of groundwater although it has been largely ignored in the groundwater literature. The Lower Triassic Sherwood Sandstone, in north west of England, UK, may be a good example of an aquifer that has been compartmentalised by numerous high angle faults with displacements of up to 300 m. The study was initiated to assess the local groundwater flow, the extent of seawater invasion and the controls on recharge in the aquifer and to try to understand whether the aquifer is broken into discrete compartments.