Caves could hold the key to Australia’s groundwater

Nov. 26, 2013

BEDFORD PARK, South Australia — A team of researchers from NCGRT are measuring water flow through limestone caves.

BEDFORD PARK, South Australia — A team of researchers led by Professor Andy Baker of the National Centre for Groundwater Research and Training (NCGRT) and The University of New South Wales (UNSW) has been searching for clues about Australia’s groundwater in limestone caves, according to an article on phys.org.

"We're facing a global water crisis, and we need to know if we're using our groundwater sustainably, and correctly predict the recharge rates of our aquifers," said Baker. "Observing water movement in caves is a cheap and reliable way to do this."

Baker and his team are using the caves as "underground rain gauges" and measuring the amount of water passing through them; a flow they have found to be very uneven, according to the article.

The NCGRT researchers have installed the world's largest collection of drip-water measuring devices in caves located in New South Wales, the article reported.

Read the full article here.

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