Submarine groundwater discharge

Submarine Groundwater Discharge (SGD) is a hydrological process which commonly occurs in coastal areas. It is described as submarine inflow of fresh-, and brackish groundwater from land into the sea. Submarine Groundwater Discharge is controlled by several forcing mechanisms, which cause a hydraulic gradient between land and sea. Considering the different regional settings the discharge occurs either as (1) a focused flow along fractures in karst and rocky areas, (2) a dispersed flow in soft sediments, or (3) a recirculation of seawater within marine sediments. Submarine Groundwater Discharge plays an important role in coastal biogeochemical processes and hydrological cycles such as the formation of offshore plankton blooms, hydrological cycles, and the release of nutrients, trace elements and gases. Submarine Groundwater Discharge (SGD) is a hydrological process which commonly occurs in coastal areas. It is described as submarine inflow of fresh-, and brackish groundwater from land into the sea. Submarine Groundwater Discharge is controlled by several forcing mechanisms, which cause a hydraulic gradient between land and sea. Considering the different regional settings the discharge occurs either as (1) a focused flow along fractures in karst and rocky areas, (2) a dispersed flow in soft sediments, or (3) a recirculation of seawater within marine sediments. Submarine Groundwater Discharge plays an important role in coastal biogeochemical processes and hydrological cycles such as the formation of offshore plankton blooms, hydrological cycles, and the release of nutrients, trace elements and gases. In coastal areas the groundwater and seawater flows are driven by a variety of factors. Both types of water can circulate in marine sediments due to tidal pumping, waves, bottom currents or density driven transport processes. Meteoric freshwaters can discharge along confined and unconfined aquifers into the sea or the oppositional process of seawater intruding into groundwater charged aquifers can take place. The flow of both fresh and sea water is primarily controlled by the hydraulic gradients between land and sea and differences in the densities between both waters and the permeabilities of the sediments. According to Drabbe and Badon-Ghijben (1888) and Herzberg (1901) the thickness of a freshwater lens below sea level (z) corresponds with the thickness of the freshwater level above sea level (h) as: