Abstract
90% of Puerto Rico’s 2400 km2 of karst is located near the Atlantic Coast. The north coast limestone aquifer consists of Tertiary carbonates with an unconfined upper aquifer and a confined lower aquifer. The transmissivity of the lower aquifer is an order of magnitude smaller than the upper aquifer. About half of the recharge is rainfall on karst uplands that travels north to near-coast springs and wells. Approximately 148,000 m3/day is withdrawn from the lowland areas, some of which contain a variety of chemical contaminants (e.g., phthalates) introduced in the populated lowlands. Widespread use of septic tanks and of caves and dolines for trash disposal is also a threat of unknown magnitude to water quality. Although the general flow paths of the upper recharges are known, and scores of streams in caves (of hundreds) have been mapped in higher elevations, the specific routes to the final discharges are not well understood. Dye traces, and isotope comparison of different sectors of the lower discharge area, have not proved particularly useful to identify them, so some efforts have focused on defining the characteristics of accessible cave system flows to see whether they can provide useful analogs. Geologic strike and dip are major controls of cave passage orientations, followed by faulting or major joint sets.
Keywords
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Beck, B., and C. Cram. 1977. On the occurrence and origin of karren on granodiorite in Puerto Rico. Proceedings of the 7th International Speleological Congress, Sheffield, England, 28–31.
Brocard, G., J. Willenbring, T. Miller, and F. Scatena. 2016. Resilience of transport-limited landscapes to dissection by upstream migrating knickpoints. Journal of Geophysical Research-Earth Surface, Ms. 2015JF003678, in revision.
Day, M. 1978. Morphology and distribution of residual limestone hills (mogotes) in the karst of northern Puerto Rico. Geological Society of America Bulletin 90 (4): 415.
Gurnee, J., et al. 1968. National Speleological Society Field Trip to Aguas Buenas Caves, Puerto Rico. Report to the Municipality of Aguas Buenas, 35 p
Lewis, J.F., and G. Draper. 1990. Geology and tectonic evolution of the northern Caribbean margin. In The Caribbean region, ed. G. Dengo, and J.E. Case, 77–140. The Geology of North America, v. H. Boulder, Colorado: Geological Society of America.
Lugo, A.E., L. Miranda Castro, A. Vale, T. López, E. Hernández Prieto, A. García Martinó, A.R. Puente Rolón, A.G. Tossas, A. McFarlane, T. Miller, A. Rodríguez, J. Lundberg, J. Thomlinson, J. Colón, J.H. Schellekens, O. Ramos, and E. Helmer. 2001. Puerto Rican Karst—A Vital Resource. United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, General Technical Report, WO-65, 100 p.
Miller, T.E. 2004a. Surface and subterranean drainage piracy, reorganization, and knickpoints of the Rio Tanamá and Rio Camuy, Puerto Rico. Geological Society of America Annual Meeting, Abstracts with programs 36 (5): 11.
Miller, T.E. 2004b. Structural control of cave development in Cretaceous limestone, southern Puerto Rico. Caribbean Journal of Science 40 (2): 276–280.
Miller, T.E. 2009. Puerto Rico (including Cave Archeology in Puerto Rico, Vertebrate Paleontology in Puerto Rico). In Caves and Karst of the U.S.A, ed. A.N. Palmer, and M.V. Palmer, 332–337; 339–343. Huntsville, AL: National Speleological Society.
Miller, T.E., and M. Figueroa-Mulet, M. 2009. Bellholes and Bellbasins: biogenic (bat) cave features of Puerto Rico and the Neotropics. Proceedings, 15th International Congress of Speleology, Kerrville, Texas, USA, 1605–1611.
Miller, T.E. 2010. Stream Pirates of the Caribbean: Tanamá and Camuy Rivers in the Northern Karst of Puerto Rico. Espeleorevista Puerto Rico 2: 8–13.
Monroe, W. H., 1976, The karst landforms of Puerto Rico: U.S. Geological Survey, Professional Paper 899, 69 p.
Renken, R.A., W.C. Ward, I.P. Gill, F. Gomez, and J. Rodriguez. 2002. Geology and hydrogeology of the Caribbean Islands aquifer system of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands: Regional Aquifer-System Analysis-Caribbean Islands. U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1419: 1–59.
Troester, J.W. 1994. The geochemistry, hydrogeology, and geomorphology of the Rio Camuy drainage basin, Puerto Rico. Ph.D. thesis, 345. University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Miller, T.E., Brocard, G., Willenbring, J. (2018). Flow Routing in the Karst of Puerto Rico. In: White, W., Herman, J., Herman, E., Rutigliano, M. (eds) Karst Groundwater Contamination and Public Health. Advances in Karst Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51070-5_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51070-5_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-51069-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-51070-5
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)