HYDROGEOLOGIC STRUCTURE OF A FRACTURED SEDIMENTARY-ROCK AQUIFER AS DETERMINED FROM GEOPHYSICAL LOG ANALYSIS, PASSAIC FORMATION, CENTRAL NEW JERSEY

Roger H. Morin
United States Geological Survey
Denver, Colorado 80225

Glen B. Carleton
United States Geological Survey
West Trenton, New Jersey 08628

Stéphane Poirier
Université du Québec à Chicoutimi
Chicoutimi, Québec G7H 2B1


The Passaic Formation consists of gradational sequences of mudstone, siltstone, and sandstone, and is a principle aquifer in central New Jersey. A hydrologic investigation designed to evaluate anisotropic flow characteristics within this aquifer was initially undertaken in 1966 at a study site north of Trenton. The existing wells associated with this study are now being utilized in a research project concerned with solute transport in fractured sedimentary rocks. These wells also provide an opportunity to return to this site with more sophisticated tools and techniques in order to expand upon the original study. A comprehensive suite of geophysical logs was obtained in ten closely spaced wells roughly 46 m in depth with a nominal diameter of about 15 cm. Lithologically responsive logs such as electrical resistivity and natural gamma activity provided vertically continuous profiles of depositional sequences that were used for stratigraphic correlation across the site. Inspection of individual fractures intersecting the wellbores by means of caliper and acoustic televiewer logs supplied the basic data from which a statistical analysis of the total fracture population was performed. Fluid-property logs (temperature, electrical conductivity, vertical velocity) delineated the transmissive intervals in each well and allowed the permeable fractures to be distinguished from the general population. About 18 percent of all fractures displayed detectable transmissivities.

Results show that an initially complex, heterogeneous network of fractures can be reduced to a simplified series of fracture subsets, with two distinct fracture types emerging from the analysis. Bedding-plane partings that strike N84°W and dip 20° to the north are the most numerous. These features exhibit widely varying hydraulic transmissivities that average roughly 5 m²/day and that generally diminish in magnitude and frequency with depth. Structurally derived fractures strike subparallel to the bedding planes at N79°E, but dip steeply (71°) to the south, thereby forming fracture planes orthogonal to the bedding planes. Transmissivities associated with these fractures are, on average, about half those of the bedding-plane partings. The intersections of these two fracture types form linear conduits that retain the common east-west strike direction and have average transmissivity values that are intermediate between those of the individual fractures. The geophysical logging results portray a distinct hydrogeologic structure within this aquifer that is controlled by fracture orientation and type. Since all permeable features strike approximately east-west, local transmissivity is strongly anisotropic. However, this directional dependence is somewhat subdued by the gently dipping bedding-plane partings which permit some north-south fluid movement.

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