Paleo-hydrological information in the subsurface water extracted by environmental isotopes

Abstract

The use of environmental isotopes reveals the wide range of subsurface water flow age around the world including the stagnant groundwater system. Because the groundwater recharge process is within the framework of regional hydrological cycle, the groundwater aquifer must have the local hydro-meteorological information including air temperature, precipitation amount, air mass source of precipitation, etc.

The new type of hydrological research field called paleo-hydrology has been rising after 1990’s to estimate the passed hydro-meteorological condition by using subsurface water including groundwater. In this report, the author will introduce some original paleo-hydrological study examples applied for different time and space scale.