What is unique about the Great Artesian Basin?
What is unique about the Great Artesian Basin?
It is one of the largest and deepest geologic basins holding fresh water in the world, covering some 660,000 square miles and having a depth of 9,800 feet at some points. About two million years ago, the ocean level dropped enough that only water in the basin and the still-flowing rivers surrounding it, were left.
What is the Great Artesian Basin and why is it important?
The Great Artesian Basin (GAB) is one of the largest underground water sources in the world and Australia’s largest groundwater basin. In fact, it’s the only reliable resource of fresh water throughout much of inland Australia.
How deep is the Great Artesian Basin?
3,000 metres
The basin is the largest and deepest artesian basin in the world. The basin is 3,000 metres (9,800 ft) deep in places and is estimated to contain 64,900 cubic kilometres (15,600 cu mi) of groundwater.
How old is the artesian basin?
The age of the groundwater, determined by carbon-14 and chlorine-36 measurements combined with hydraulic modelling, ranges from several thousand years for the recharge areas in the north to nearly 2 million years in the south-western discharge zones.
How much water does the Great Artesian Basin hold?
64,900 million megalitres
Covering more than 1.7 million square kilometres, the GAB underlies parts of Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia and the Northern Territory. The GAB contains a vast volume of underground water (estimated at 64,900 million megalitres) and is the largest groundwater basin in Australia.
What is the population of the Great Artesian Basin?
The Basin as a resource The Basin generates approximately $13 billion per year. It is a vital resource for 180,000 people, 7,600 businesses and 120 towns. It has enabled Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to occupy dry inland areas of Australia for more than 60,000 years.
How was the Great Artesian Basin created?
The Great Artesian Basin was formed about 130 million years ago, by a sheet of quartz over a shelf underground. The Great Dividing Range was formed 1000 years earlier, when the rains came the mountains ran rivers off them.
Who found the Great Artesian Basin?
The Great Artesian Basin is a natural underground water resource covering thousands of square kilometers in inland Australia. Natural springs fed from this source were long known to indigenous people. Europeans discovered the water when a bore was sunk near Bourke, NSW, in 1878.
How does the Great Artesian Basin refill?
Aquifers are recharged when rainfall and streamflow infiltrates down through exposed permeable rock and refills the underground storage spaces. Water moves through sandstone extremely slowly, at a rate of between one and five metres a year.
How do they get water from the Great Artesian Basin?
Water is removed from the basin through natural springs and seepage, as well as by the grazing industry, petroleum and gas operators, and other users. Learn how you can access water from the GAB and other regional aquifers.
How much water is in the artesian basin?
about 65 million gigalitres
The Great Artesian Basin contains about 65 million gigalitres of water, or the equivalent of 130,000 Sydney Harbours. The water is contained within layers of porous rock (aquifers), held in place under pressure by layers of impermeable rock.
When was the Great Artesian Basin discovered?
1878
The Great Artesian Basin is a natural underground water resource covering thousands of square kilometers in inland Australia. Natural springs fed from this source were long known to indigenous people. Europeans discovered the water when a bore was sunk near Bourke, NSW, in 1878.
What is the importance of the Great Artesian Basin?
Great Source of Natural Minerals. The biggest benefit of artesian bottled water – and the only benefit that is backed by science – is that it has a high mineral
Where is the Great Artesian Basin located?
The Great Artesian Basin ( GAB ), located in Australia, is the largest and deepest artesian basin in the world, stretching over 1,700,000 square kilometres (660,000 sq mi), with measured water temperatures ranging from 30–100 °C (86–212 °F). The basin provides the only source of fresh water through much of inland Australia.
What lies beneath- the Great Artesian Basin?
The Great Artesian Basin is vast, lying beneath 20% of the entire continent. It consists of porous layers of sandstone that arise on the Western Slopes of the Great Dividing Range as far north as Cape York and continue westward under much of Queensland and Northern NSW, far across South Australia and the south-east corner of the Northern Territory.
What to do in Great Basin?
The Great Lakes are central to our way of life, and permanently storing nuclear waste so close to our shared waterways puts our economies and millions of jobs at risk in the fishing, boating and tourism industries.
