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Discussion |
Howard Humphreys and Partners, Kennet House, , Kings Road, Reading, Berkshire, RG1 3BT.
The authors are to be congratulated on this interesting paper, the implications of which extend beyond purely local considerations. The evident agreement between the hydrochemical data and the earlier geophysical interpretation of the glacial sands (Worthington 1972) supports the integrated use of these diverse techniques in hydrogeological evaluation. Although surface geophysical methods are well proven, they are not universally regarded as established within the framework of hydrogeological practice. If this paper encourages a more general acceptance of hydrogeophysics, it will have served an additional useful purpose.
One or two specific points do call for comment. The statement ‘Worthington (1977) records that the aquifer has a predominant intergranular permeability’ is not strictly correct and it therefore seems somewhat inappropriate to label the alleged proposition as ‘contentious’. The basic assertion of the paper cited is immediately evident from the abstract:
‘... the intergranular component of groundwater flow (within the Triassic Sandstone) can vary markedly from place to place and is apparently the predominant mechanism within a sizable area. Elsewhere intergranular flow is supplemented by fissure drainage, and is sometimes relatively insignificant. It is concluded that intergranular permeability exerts a basic control upon abstraction well productivity, with maximum benefits being derived where a comparatively strong intergranular flow is augmented by a well-developed, localized fissure network’.
The major point to emerge here is that it is intergranular permeability which appears to exert a fundamental control upon the hydraulic conductivity of the Triassic Sandstone. It is therefore especiallv encouraging to note the agreement between,
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This 250-word extract was created in the absence of an abstract.
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