Hydrologic changes of in-situ gravimetry

Abstract

Inter-seasonal and geodynamics-related gravity changes are important geoscientific signals that are extractable from gravimeter observations after deducing background information as local hydrology gravity effect. With two superconducting gravimeters (SGs, OSG-053 and iGrav-007) located in different tectonic units, continuous Global Navigation Satellite System data, and AG observations, Wuhan (China) is an ideal location for investigating the effects of gravity resulting from significant local hydrology mass variations. We processed ∼26 months of gravity data collected from the SGs in Wuhan and obtain residuals of -40 nm.s2 for OSG-053 and 100 for iGrav-007. The hydrological observations show an estimated gravity increase of 42 nm.s2 near iGrav-007, which mainly resulted from the increased unconfined water level with an aquifer-specific yield of approximately 0.1. However, the gravity changes around OSG-053 are mainly from soil moisture and reach -90 nm.s2. The soil type, thickness and water content parameters were obtained from hydrogeological survey and drilling data. The deep confined water level rose by 2.5 m, which introduced a 1 nm.s2 gravity variation with a specific storage about 0.00001 from field unsteady flow pumping test. The modeled gravity is approximately -40 nm.s2 around OSG-053 and 90 around iGrav-007, in accordance with the observed gravity variations. The difference in gravity changes between the two SG observations can be explained by different local water storage environments. Our results suggest that unconfined and soil water significantly impact the in-situ gravimetry, which indicates that further detailed hydrogeological surveys are required. A combined investigation of gravity and water levels can be a useful approach to monitor aquifer storage conditions and groundwater management.