干旱区生态环境知识资源中心

On the Nevada Test Site (NTS), there are over 400 subsidence craters resulting from underground nuclear tests and many intercept (harvest) surface water. A stochastic rainfall-runoff model was developed and used with a vadose zone groundwater model to estimate the volume of water captured and infiltrated by a single crater formed in 1965. These models suggest that within this crater the recharge rate lies between 36 and 118 cm/yr while outside the crater in the undisturbed environment the recharge rate is approximately 0.7 cm/yr. The results of the modeling are supported by field data.