Hydrogeology

The water is essential to the development of life on the Earth. The humans have always preoccupied for it, to satisfy their basic and secondary needs, and others priorities that have been generated recently. Actually ours priorities are changed, because note that the water is an basic element to satisfy the demand, which is grown every day.

We speak a lot of the problems respect quality and quantity of freshwater available, but it is not limited to lakes, seas or rivers, it goes further. The natural shortages and inadequate administration of vital fluid, has generated over exploitation of aquifers, which is the result of excessive increase in water extraction, increasing demand for agricultural, urban and industrial uses, resulting in a continuous levels decline of water  in the aquifers and deterioration its quality.

The nature limits the quantity of available water for our use. Although there enough in the planet, but not always in place and appropriate time. Also there are evidences that chemical waste improperly disposed is now appearing in water sources.

For the previously mentioned it’s significant to know the characteristics of exploitation of groundwater and hydrogeologic conditions of the aquifers. This is a challenge for the Mexican Geological Survey, to actualize the knowledge about groundwater in different national hidrogeological basins, and predict their evolution in the short and medium time, also be adjunct to the official instances of water management, their investigation and who requests to support the safeguard and efficient use of water use, without compromising the quality and quantity of this resource.

The types of studies developing by this Organism are: 

1. Hydrogeologic Prospecting;  presence of groundwater, including depth and direction of flow. 
2. Hydrogeologic Assessment; quantification of available water in the aquifer.
3. Hydrogeologic Modeling: prediction and aperation of the aquifer system.
4. Characterization hydrogeochemistry (quality): To know the effect of sources and potential contamination in groundwater.

How does the SGM study the hydrogeology?

The hydrogeological studies include evaluation of the climatic conditions of a region, the rainfall pattern, the water chemistry, physical characteristics of the rocks masses, such as permeability, porosity, fracturing, chemical composition, geological and geotectonic features.  

Therefore, the SGM study geological materials that determine the presence, distribution and flow of  water, groundwater relationship with the geological environment, the conditions governing the movement of water, physicochemical characteristics of groundwater and its development, exploration and exploitation, and a large list of specific aspects, which may include; the impact of water in the infrastructure works.  A fundamental part in this kind of studies is the interpretation of satellite images, application of geophysical unconventional methods for exploration, such as gravimetry, magnetometry and air electromagnetometry.