A Circum-Owens Lake Fiber Seismic Network for Groundwater Research
Profile
A Circum-Owens Lake Fiber Seismic Network for Groundwater Research
PI: Zhongwen Zhan
Research Team: Elijah Bird and Yan Yang
Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences
Water Resources Initiative
The Los Angeles Aqueduct provides one third of the water for Los Angeles, diverting it from the Owens River. Within ten years of the diversion, Owens Lake dried up and caused numerous air quality and sustainability issues. As the L.A. Department of Water and Power continues efforts to revive Owens Lake amid climate change by recharging the groundwater basin, we will apply a new technology, Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS), to advance the groundwater monitoring and management in the Owens valley. DAS converts fiber optic cables around the lake into sensitive seismic arrays with which we can measure mechanical changes of rocks caused by groundwater fluctuations. The time-dependent seismic images of the aquifers under Owens Lake will add a new dimension to our ability to measure the injection, withdrawal and intra-basin movement of groundwater, with the goal that these tools will help ensure sustainable management of underground aquifers.