Simulation of groundwater flow system in alluvium and fractured weathered bedrock zone: Sand Lick watershed, Boone County, West Virginia, USA

The Appalachian Plateau is characterized by relatively flat-laying but intensely eroded bedrock, comprising cyclical sequences of Pennsylvanian age sedimentary bedrock dominated by sandstone, siltstone, shale, coal, claystone and occasionally limestone. Fractured/weathered sandstone is potentially the main groundwater transmitting zone. Conventional field or laboratory methods of estimating the hydraulic properties in selected points within such fractured and weathered bedrock groundwater transmitting zones are seldom representative or feasible because of their heterogeneity, anisotropy and irregular aquifer geometry. Therefore, the objectives of our study is to determine the “bulk” hydraulic properties of a weathered/fractured zone in a valley located within the Appalachian Plateau Geomorphic Province as well as recharge and evapotranspiration rates by inverse numerical simulation of groundwater flow.