Knowledge Bank

Water samples were taken from three aquifers along a flowpath from Bellefontaine topographic high to the Maumee River. Through the use of mixing triangles constructed using major conservative ion pairs, it has been determined that the water in the shallow carbonate aquifer is a mixture of deep carbonate water and glacial aquifer water. It was also found that the shallow carbonate water is diluted by meteoric water. The Bellefontaine high is a recharge zone where the glacial and deep carbonate aquifer waters mix. The two sites closest to the Maumee River exhibit greatly increased concentrations of sulfate, magnesium, and calcium, which may be due to upward leakage of deep brines through the Bowling Green Fault Zone. Ion concentration trends in water from the glacial wells may be due to variations in the thickness of the glacial cover.