Recommendation for geophysical investigation of groundwater resources in northern Jordan to support the project

Report of the project:

• Jordan - Improved Groundwater Resources Management in Response to the Syrian Refugee Crisis
• Jordanien - Verbessertes Grundwassermanagement als Antwort auf die syrische Flüchtlingskrise

Improved groundwater resources management requires more detailed knowledge on the aquiferous strata, their spatial extent, depth and connection than only sparsely distributed borehole data can deliver. Therefore, the possibility of geophysical surveys to provide such information was discussed and assessed by test measurements during December 2015.

Investigation site with seismic source Source: BGR

By the Jordanian project partner a seismic test line was shot and subsequently a transient electromagnetic sounding conducted close to an investigation well in Northern Jordan. The aquifers tapped by this well comprise several basaltic layers (some 300m), underneath the basalt an Upper Cretaceous bituminous marl layer aquitard (B3, some 60m thick) and below a karstic limestone and chert (B2/A7) aquifer down to 600m depth.

The required depth penetration limits the application of geophysical methods and only seismics and electromagnetics seems promising. The ground geophysics group assessed the applicability of the transient electromagnetics for the investigation of such aquifer conditions by model calculations and the inversion of the test sounding.