It is commonly thought that old groundwater cannot be pumped sustainably, and that recently recharged groundwater is inherently sustainable. We argue that both old and young groundwaters can be used in physically sustainable or unsustainable ways.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Relevant articles
Open Access articles citing this article.
-
Assessing Sustainable Development of Deep Aquifers
Water Resources Management Open Access 16 May 2023
-
Modern groundwater reaches deeper depths in heavily pumped aquifer systems
Nature Communications Open Access 07 September 2022
-
Determining recharge distribution in fractured carbonate aquifers in central Italy using environmental isotopes: snowpack cover as an indicator for future availability of groundwater resources
Hydrogeology Journal Open Access 04 July 2022
Access options
Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals
Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription
$29.99 / 30 days
cancel any time
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$259.00 per year
only $21.58 per issue
Rent or buy this article
Prices vary by article type
from$1.95
to$39.95
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
References
Bethke, C. M. & Johnson, T. M. Annu. Rev. Earth Planet. Sci. 36, 121–152 (2008).
Bierkens, M. F. & Wada, Y. Environ. Res. Lett. 14, 063002 (2019).
Margat, J., Foster, S. & Droubi, A. in Non-Renewable Groundwater Resources: A Guidebook on Socially-Sustainable Management for Water-Policy Makers (eds Foster, S. & Loucks, D. P.) 13–24 (UNESCO, 2006).
de Jong, M., Moran, J. E. & Visser, A. Quat. Int. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2019.04.008 (2019).
Gleeson, T., Cuthbert, M., Ferguson, G. & Perrone, D. Annu. Rev. Earth Planet. Sci. 48, 431–463 (2020).
Döll, P. & Fiedler, K. Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. Discuss. 4, 4069–4124 (2007).
Bredehoeft, J. D. Groundwater 40, 340–345 (2002).
Rodell, M. et al. Nature 557, 651–659 (2018).
Sturchio, N. C. et al. Geophys. Res. Lett. 31, L05503 (2004).
McIntosh, J. C., Schlegel, M. E. & Person, M. Geofluids 12, 7–21 (2012).
Bethke, C. M., Zhao, X. & Torgersen, T. J. Geophys. Res. Solid Earth 104, 12999–13011 (1999).
Cuthbert, M. et al. Nat. Clim. Change 9, 137–141 (2019).
Zinn, B. A. & Konikow, L. F. Water Resour. Res. 43, W06418 (2007).
Suckow, A. Appl. Geochem. 50, 222–230 (2014).
Jasechko, S. et al. Nat. Geosci. 10, 425–429 (2017).
Dillon, P. et al. Hydrogeol. J. 27, 1–30 (2019).
Acknowledgements
This research was supported by a Global Water Futures grant to G.F. and J.C.M. and an NSERC Discovery Grant to G.F. J.C.M acknowledges funding received as a Fellow of the CIFAR Earth4D Subsurface Science and Exploration Program. M.O.C. acknowledges support under an Independent Research Fellowship from the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC; NE/P017819/1). This commentary benefitted from discussions with P. Döll, J. Famiglietti, G. Fogg, X. Huggins, A. Manning, K. Markovich and M. Rohde.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Ferguson, G., Cuthbert, M.O., Befus, K. et al. Rethinking groundwater age. Nat. Geosci. 13, 592–594 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-020-0629-7
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-020-0629-7
This article is cited by
-
Assessing Sustainable Development of Deep Aquifers
Water Resources Management (2023)
-
Over a third of groundwater in USA public-supply aquifers is Anthropocene-age and susceptible to surface contamination
Communications Earth & Environment (2022)
-
Widespread and increased drilling of wells into fossil aquifers in the USA
Nature Communications (2022)
-
Modern groundwater reaches deeper depths in heavily pumped aquifer systems
Nature Communications (2022)
-
Determining recharge distribution in fractured carbonate aquifers in central Italy using environmental isotopes: snowpack cover as an indicator for future availability of groundwater resources
Hydrogeology Journal (2022)