Multidisciplinary Characterization of Contaminant Transport in Fractured Rock -- Mirror Lake, New Hampshire

Early Toxics Program research on point source contamination in fractured rock aquifers was organized around research activities at the Mirror Lake, New Hampshire research site. This site is uncontaminated and characterized by fractured crystalline rock. It lies within the Hubbard's Brook Experimental Forest administered by the U.S. Forest Service. Research conducted at the site has focused on understanding the processes and factors that affect how water flows in the fracture networks developed in such aquifers. The research has also emphasized development of methods to characterize subsurface fracture networks and the properties that affect flow and contaminant transport including noninvasive geophysical techniques. Numerous field tracer experiments have been conducted at the site. Knowledge and methods developed at this site have been generalized and tested at numerous other fractured rock sites across the Nation.

Related Headlines

• USGS Patents the Multifunction Bedrock-Aquifer Transportable Testing Tool (BAT³)
• New Paradigm for Fractured Rock Cleanup
• What Controls the Migration of Chlorinated Solvents in Fractured Rock?

More Information

• Project Bibliography
• Project Photo Gallery
• Abstracts from Selected Meetings/Conferences
• Transport Phenomena in Fractured Rock
• Hydrology of Fractured Rocks
• Geophysical Research
• Borehole Imaging as Part of a Hydro-Fracing Experiment
• Modified Square-Array Resistivity Method for Imaging Fractured Rock
• Borehole Radar Monitoring of a Steam-Injection Remediation Pilot Study, Loring Air Force Base, Limestone, Maine, 2004
• Borehole Radar Monitoring of a Steam-Injection Remediation Pilot Study, Loring Air Force Base, Limestone, Maine, 2003
• Radar and electrical-resistivity monitoring of landfill leachate, University of Connecticut landfill, Storrs, Connecticut
• Borehole Geophysics as Applied to Geohydrology
• Using Seismic Tomography to Characterize Fractured Bedrock
• Evaluation of Lithology and Structural Geology on Ground-Water Movement in the Mirror Lake Area in Grafton County, New Hampshire
• For additional information about the Mirror Lake Toxics Project please send e-mail to Allen Shapiro at

Meetings and Conferences

• USGS co-sponsor the special session Characterizing Ground-Water Flow and Chemical Transport in Fractured-Rock Aquifers at the 2008 Western Pacific Geophysics Meeting in Cairns, Australia, on July 29-August 1, 2008

New Publications

• The effect of terrace geology on ground-water movement and on the interaction of ground water and surface water on a mountainside near Mirror Lake, New Hampshire, USA: Winter, T.C., Buso, D.C., Shattuck, P.C., Harte, P.T., Vroblesky, D.A., and Goode, D.J., 2008, Hydrological Processes, v. 22, no. 1, p. 21-32, doi:10.1002/hyp.6593.

Related Investigations

• Geochemical and Microbiological Processes that Affect Migration and Natural Attenuation of Chlorinated Solvents in Fractured Sedimentary Rock -- Naval Air Warfare Center (NAWC) Research Site, West Trenton, NJ

Other USGS Information About Fractured Rock Hydrology

• The Pennsylvania District Fractured Rock Hydrology Research Unit

Back to Investigations Page

Back to Contamination in Fractured-Rock Aquifers Research Projects

Back to Subsurface Point-Source Contamination Research Projects