A conceptual snapsot of a big coastal dune aquifer: Magilligan, Northern Ireland

The Magilligan sand spit dune field is situated on the eastern mouth of Lough Foyle in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. It is a large triangular-shaped site some 7 km by 4 km by 1.5 km wide (about 800 ha) and maintains areas, particularly in the eastern part, with slacks that regularly flood in...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of coastal conservation Vol. 21; no. 5; pp. 615 - 621
Main Authors Robins, N. S., Wilson, P.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Dordrecht Springer 01.10.2017
Springer Netherlands
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects
Aquifers
Beaches
Clay
Coastal Sciences
Coasts
Discharge
Dunes
Earth and Environmental Science
Environmental monitoring
Geography
Gravel
Groundwater
Groundwater levels
Groundwater recharge
Nature Conservation
Oceanography
Recession
Remote Sensing/Photogrammetry
Sand
Sand & gravel
Sand aquifers
Sandspits
Silt
Water balance
Water levels
Water table
Water budget
Dune slack
Sand dune
Groundwater
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:The Magilligan sand spit dune field is situated on the eastern mouth of Lough Foyle in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. It is a large triangular-shaped site some 7 km by 4 km by 1.5 km wide (about 800 ha) and maintains areas, particularly in the eastern part, with slacks that regularly flood in winter. The size of the system acts as a buffer to external drivers due to the large volume of groundwater stored, the longer travel distances and lower hydraulic gradients. However, unlike many other coastal dune sites with humid dune slacks in the British Isles the sand is not wholly underlain by silt and clay, as raised beach sand and gravel deposits are in contact with the sand aquifer in some places. A preliminary water balance suggests that the majority of the discharge from the sand aquifer occurs via the underlying raised beach deposits and only a small amount discharges directly from the sand aquifer beneath the foredunes. Available water level monitoring is skewed towards the wetter end of the dune system; no significant short-term water level trends are apparent. The data also indicate that recharge regularly takes place within the sand aquifer interspersed by periods of groundwater level recession.
ISSN:1400-0350
1874-7841
DOI:10.1007/s11852-017-0503-y