Ear: Cascades

University of Oregon scientists and their colleagues have studied and mapped an enormous underground aquifer that has been discovered under Oregon’s Cascade Range that contains over 19 cubic miles of water, earth.com reported.

“It is a continental-size lake stored in the rocks at the top of the mountains, like a big water tower,” Leif Karlstrom, University of Oregon lead author of the study, said. The team thinks similar aquifers have yet to be found in the Cascades.

“We initially set out to better understand how the Cascade landscape has evolved over time, and how water moves through it,” co-author Gordon Grant, a U.S. Forest Service geologist, said.

“But in doing so, we discovered important things that people care about: the incredible volume of water in active storage in the Cascades, and also how the movement of water and the hazards posed by volcanoes are linked together.”

“This region has been handed a geological gift,” Grant added, “but we really are only beginning to understand it. If we don’t have any snow, or if we have a run of bad winters where we don’t get any rain, what’s that going to mean? Those are the key questions we’re now having to focus on.” (Image: Heinrich Berann)