Inter-basin groundwater flow in the Ordos Basin: Evidence of environmental isotope and hydrological investigations

Abstract

The Ordos Basin, located in arid and semi-arid region of China, is famous for its abundant groundwater resources and artesian features. The source of groundwater recharge, whether from local precipitation or external sources, has been debated. This study aims to elucidate the groundwater circulation mechanism in the Ordos Basin through scientific expedition, environmental isotope method, and hydrological drilling exploration, providing valuable insights for other artesian basins. Comprehensive analysis indicates that groundwater in the Ordos Basin is recharged by modern precipitation, primarily from high-elevation areas outside the basin. Deep groundwater from these external sources ascends to the aquifer through basement fault zones. Evidence from hydrogen and oxygen isotopes, hydraulic gradients, and water quantities suggests that the Tibetan Plateau is the most potential recharge source. Based on the distribution of Cenozoic basalt and data from seismic observation wells, we propose that leakage water from the Tibetan Plateau rift valley is transported to the Ordos Basin through fast channels, possibly lava tubes, and then upwelling through basement fault zones. This work provides a new perspective on the mechanism of inter-basin groundwater circulation.

Keywords

Groundwater circulation / Ordos Basin / Artesian basins / Deep-circulating groundwater

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Yitong Zhang: Writing – original draft, Visualization, Formal analysis, Data curation, Conceptualization. Jiaqi Chen: Writing – review & editing, Funding acquisition, Conceptualization. Jiansheng Chen: Writing – review & editing, Methodology, Investigation. Wang Wang: Writing – review & editing.

Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 61771183). We gratefully thank for the help of Mr. SU Zhiguo from the National Key Laboratory of Water Disaster Prevention at Hohai University.

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