Unsaturated Zone

The multidisciplinary research team is made up of scientists from research institutes, universities, National laboratories, and the USGS. The USGS co-leaders for the team are Brian J. Andraski (ADRS Coordinator, Nevada Water Science Center) and David A. Stonestrom (National Research Program, California).

The Amargosa Desert Research Site (ADRS), in the northern Mojave Desert, is about 20 km east of Death Valley National Park. Recognizing the paucity of information on unsaturated-zone hydrology in arid regions, the USGS, in 1983, established the ADRS through agreements with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the State of Nevada. The ADRS serves as a field laboratory for the study of arid-land...

In 1976, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) began studies of unsaturated zone hydrology at a site in the Amargosa Desert near Beatty, Nevada, as part of the USGS Low-Level Radioactive Waste Program. The site is near disposal trenches for civilian waste. Over the years, USGS investigations at the Amargosa Desert Research Site (ADRS) have provided long-term "benchmark" information about the hydraulic...

The USGS conducted a study to evaluate the potential for groundwater discharge from sparsely vegetated areas in the Amargosa Desert. The study objectives were to: (1) compute groundwater discharge based on evapotranspiration and precipitation measurements at instrumented sites, and (2) improve understanding of hydrologic-continuum processes controlling groundwater discharge through analysis of...