Environmental Engineering Reference
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FIGURE 1 Map showing localities of (1) the Biscayne aquifer and the Edwards-Trinity aquifer
system, (2) the two study areas in Texas, (3) the study area (solid red polygon) of Cunningham
et al. (2004, 2006a,b) in southeastern Florida, and (4) the position of cross-section A-A 0 shown
in Fig. 2 .
flow. Cunningham et al. (2009, 2010) and Cunningham and Sukop (2011) dem-
onstrated well that groundwater flow, through parts of the mostly Pleistocene
carbonate Biscayne aquifer in southeastern Florida ( Fig. 1 ), can be concentrated
within stratiform, very permeable macropore networks associated with
Ophiomorpha -dominated ichnofabrics. Recent research by the U.S. Geological
Survey, which includes the integration of ichnology, cyclostratigraphy, bore-
hole geophysics, tracer tests, hydraulic tests, high-resolution X-ray computed
tomography, Lattice Boltzmann simulations, a conduit flow process for
MODFLOW-2005 simulations, and nuclear magnetic resonance imaging
( Cunningham and Sukop, 2011; Cunningham et al., 2006a,b, 2009, 2010; Florea
et al., 2009; Renken et al., 2005, 2008; Shapiro et al., 2008; Shoemaker et al.,
2008 ), has produced a better understanding of the effect of carbonate macro-
porosity and permeability related to ichnofabrics on advective groundwater
flow, and solute and colloidal transport in the Biscayne aquifer.
The purpose of this chapter is to show that (1) aspects of ichnology can offer
a fruitful methodology for purposes of carbonate aquifer characterization, and
(2) there can be a strong relationship between macroporosity and permeability
related to ichnofabrics and groundwater flow (including paleogroundwater
flow) in carbonate aquifers. This chapter is based primarily on ongoing carbon-
ate aquifer characterization by Cunningham, chiefly on the rocks of the
Biscayne aquifer in southeastern Florida and new research on outcrops of
Cretaceous strata that comprise large parts of the Edwards-Trinity aquifer sys-
tem in central Texas ( Fig. 1 ). Sukop developed the methodologies for comput-
ing permeability of macroporous, vuggy carbonate rocks using Lattice
Boltzmann simulations and calculations of macroporosity. Curran contributed
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