An “aquitard” is NOT exercise clothing that you wear for water aerobics. That’s one of the things that reporter Dan Stork and over 100 other attendees learned in class at Aquifers 101…
A capacity crowd at the Joshua Tree Community Center in the middle of a Friday afternoon was introduced by two US Geological Survey scientists to the science of groundwater, with particular emphasis on the water-bearing geology of the Morongo Basin. After stressing that the USGS is NOT a regulatory or policy-making agency, but is focused on basic earth science research, Dr. Tracy Nishikawa and Dave O’Leary identified the basic principal of groundwater: Water runs downhill. Then they defined many technical terms pertinent to the ability of the earth to store and transport water. They described instrumentation and drilling techniques that allow them to collect data about water movement and substances found in water at a large sample of locations. The data is used in the creation and refinement of mathematical models that are used to describe and predict the movement and makeup of water over large areas in which the drilling sites are located. In the Morongo Basin, the USGS has created test sites in the Warren Basin in the west end of the Morongo Basin, the Joshua Basin, the Copper Mountain area, and the Marine Base area.
