Notes on flow‐time effects in the great artesian aquifers of the Earth

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Abstract
There exist several very large artesian aquifers in the Earth's crust. The Great Australian Artesian Basin [Gregory, 1906; Lockhart Jack, 1930; Pitman and David, 1903; Pitman, 1908 and 1914] covers an area of nearly 4,000,000 sq km. The groundwater body under the Libyan Desert [Ball, 1927; Hellstrom, 1940] is estimated to have a length of 1200 km and a width of the same magnitude. In the United States a number of such aquifers have been more or less thoroughly explored, perhaps the most noteworthy being that in the Dakota sandstone [Darton, 1909; Meinzer and Hard, 1925] with a length and width of some 500 km, An important aquifer lies under the Latvian Devon; only little is known, however, about its actual dimensions.The aquifers referred to are of great importance for the regions they traverse, as they constitute a vital source of water supply and irrigation. This is especially true as regards the Great Australian Basin, where a large population and huge properties are concerned. Consequently, the flow of the artesian waters has created much interest and has been the subject of investigation by many distinguished authors. It is safe to state, however, that the many interesting and important phenomena encountered in large artesian aquifers are not yet fully elucidated.The following study aims at throwing some further light upon this problem. It will deal chiefly with the effect of the compressibility of the water and the volume elasticity of the water‐conveying medium (aquifer), the latter of which may be referred to as the Meinzer effect [Meinzer and Hard, 1925; Theis, 1935]. It will be shown that the said agents are essential, first because the volume changes of the water and of the aquifer have a very marked effect upon the flow under variable conditions, that is, when the pressures in the stream are changed in some way or other, and second because the compression represents a storage of considerable magnitude. Also certain physical phenomena in the tapping of water through wells, etc., will be explained by the theory advanced.The compression theory also possesses a broader geophysical aspect. The dried‐out oases in Egypt [Hellstrom, 1940] may be well explained by such phenomena as will be described in principle in this paper. The same may be true regarding the present‐day sterility of old cultivated lands in Turkestan in Asia. With special reference to the Great Australian Basin, the results indicate that it is not out of the way to repeat a warning of dwindling yield, once sounded by J . W. Gregory [1906], although for another reason than that anticipated by this author in his well‐known classical work “The dead heart of Australia.”

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