Advances in fault zone hydraulic properties

Abstract

Significance As a tectonic phenomenon with important hydrogeological significance, fault zones mostly show a significant impact on groundwater migration. Progress It is important to include fault zones in water resource management and evaluation. This paper focuses on the permeability of the fault zone, the quantitative characterization and the evolution of the hydraulic characteristics of the fault zone, the dynamic evolution of the hydraulic characteristics of fault zones and the simulation of groundwater flow in the fault zone. The permeability of the fault zone is the key to the current study, and different permeability characterization methods have different representative scales. The permeability of the fault zone has complex spatiotemporal distribution characteristics, which challenges the description of groundwater migration in the fault zone. The selection of appropriate numerical simulation methods is an important way to quantitatively describe the groundwater movement in the fault zone and verify the suitability of the other methods. How to consider the complexity of the hydraulic characteristics of the fault zone at the spatiotemporal scale in the simulation process is the premise of accurately characterizing the groundwater flow in the fault zone. Conclusions and Prospects We suggest that a special hydrogeological observation base for the fault zone is the key to further improve the level of fault zone groundwater study, and data from geological, hydrogeological, heat flow, geophysical and remote sensing should be integrated, and interdisciplinary cooperation should be strengthened.

Keywords

• fault zone
• groundwater
• damage zone
• hydrological property
• permeability