Recent advances in the hydrostratigraphy of paleozoic bedrock in the midwestern united states

Recent hydrostratigraphic researches have made it possible to acquire knowledge about the relatively undeformed Paleozoic bedrock that forms the most widely used aquifers in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Ongoing evaluation of the Cambrian Eau Claire Formation in southern Wisconsin has caused the formation to be considered a major regional aquitard. Subsurface logs indicate that its thickness ranges from absent to <75 m, and parts of the formation yield significant amounts of water to wells. A key part of modern aquitard hydrogeology is the integration of multi-level hydraulic head measurements into hydrostratigraphic analysis. In south-central Wisconsin, regional groundwater withdrawals from the confined Mount Simon aquifer have created a regional cone of depression. Regional groundwater modeling has demonstrated that this relatively thin unit exerts a major control on regional groundwater flow in the ̃300-m-thick bedrock aquifer system and that it is critical in protecting deep wells from contamination.