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Unconventional tracers show that spring waters on Mount Fuji run deep

A trio of tracers has debunked a long-held model of the origins of spring water on Mount Fuji, revealing interactions between shallow and deep aquifer layers, and providing a fresh approach for probing mountain groundwater flow.
  1. Lauren Somers

    1. Lauren Somers is in the Department of Civil and Resource Engineering, Dalhousie University, Halifax B3H 4R2, Canada.

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Mountains have been described as the water towers of the world1,2 — they receive large amounts of precipitation, store snow and ice, and their high altitudes mean that water undergoes only low levels of evaporation and transpiration. Montane rivers are crucial water resources both for mountain inhabitants and for downstream lowland populations. Groundwater stored in mountains is now recognized as an important water resource, but our understanding of groundwater flow paths in mountains is limited by a lack of field data and by the shortcomings of conventional hydrogeological methods3. Writing in Nature Water, Schilling et al.4 report an analytical approach that provides insights into how water can move through the subsurface in rugged mountain environments.

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Nature 613, 632-633 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-04561-z

References

  1. Immerzeel, W. W. et al. Nature 577, 364–369 (2020).

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  2. Viviroli, D., Dürr, H. H., Messerli, B., Meybeck, M. & Weingartner, R. Water Resour. Res. 43, W07447 (2007).

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  3. Somers, L. D. & McKenzie, J. M. WIRESs Water 7, e1475 (2020).

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  4. Schilling, O. S. et al. Nature Wat. 1, 60–73 (2023).

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  5. Yasuhara, M., Hayashi, T., Asai, K., Uchiyama, M. & Nakamura, T. J. Geogr. 126, 25–27 (2017).

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  8. Miller, J. B., Frisbee, M. D., Hamilton, T. L. & Murugapiran, S. K. Environ. Res. Lett. 16, 064012 (2021).

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Competing Interests

The author declares no competing interests.

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