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Magnetic resonance sounding evidence shows that shallow groundwater discharge maintains the lake landscape in the Hunshandake Sandy Land, North China

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Abstract

The Hunshandake Sandy Land (HSL) is a well-known water-rich sandy region in China that is home to many lakes. Most of these lakes are sustained by groundwater inflow. However, due to the limited hydrogeological survey data, the mechanism by which the lakes interact with groundwater is not well understood. Magnetic resonance sounding (MRS) is a geophysical method that has emerged in recent years that can directly detect the distribution of groundwater and determine the lithology of the aquifer medium. Compared with drilling, this method is convenient, rapid, and inexpensive. In this study, to determine how the lakes are recharged by groundwater, a field experiment using MRS was conducted on Haoletuyin Lake, which is located in the central HSL. The results showed that compared with borehole data, the MRS-derived aquifer depth has an uncertainty of 6.88%. Additionally, the lithology of the media derived from the MRS is consistent with that derived from the borehole data. This finding suggests that the MRS-derived results are highly accurate. Based on the MRS-derived results, two hydrogeological profiles were plotted, and they show that the lake in the experimental area is recharged primarily by shallow groundwater and not by deep groundwater. This study is significant because it not only reveals the mechanism by which Haoletuyin Lake is maintained, but also proves that MRS is an excellent tool for studying lake-groundwater relations in desert (sandy land) regions with limited hydrogeological survey data.

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Acknowledgements

This research was financially supported by the Basic Scientific Research Foundation Special Project of the China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research (nos. MK2019J04 and MK2019J05) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (nos. 41402224 and 51779156).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Simulation and Regulation of Water Cycle in River Basin, China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, Beijing, 100038, China

    Xiangqian Yu

  2. Institute of Water Resources for Pastoral Area, China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, Hohhot, 010020, China

    Xiangqian Yu, Yongsheng Wu, Zhifu Zhang, Xiaofeng Du & Tiejun Liu

  3. College of Instrumentation and Electrical Engineering, Jilin University, Changchun, 130061, China

    Chuandong Jiang

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  1. Xiangqian Yu
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  2. Yongsheng Wu
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  4. Zhifu Zhang
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  5. Xiaofeng Du
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Correspondence to Xiangqian Yu or Yongsheng Wu.

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Yu, X., Wu, Y., Jiang, C. et al. Magnetic resonance sounding evidence shows that shallow groundwater discharge maintains the lake landscape in the Hunshandake Sandy Land, North China. Environ Earth Sci 79, 327 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-020-09076-2

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