ArticleNature communications2022
Widespread and increased drilling of wells into fossil aquifers in the USA.
Article in Nature communications, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed.
- Research on risk assessment method of wireline logging sticking and analysis of sensitive factors.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- A global helium clock for groundwater residence time.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Reproducibility of Radiokrypton in Deep Desert Aquifers: Insights from a Decade of Research.ACS earth & space chemistry · 2025Article
- Agriculture's impact on water-energy balance varies across climates.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Re-interpreting renewable and non-renewable water resources in the over-pressured Pannonian Basin.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- A database of groundwater wells in the United States.Scientific data · 2024Article
- Article
- Widespread aquifer depressurization after a century of intensive groundwater use in USA.Science advances · 2023Article
- Modern groundwater reaches deeper depths in heavily pumped aquifer systems.Nature communications · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Most stored groundwater is 'fossil' in its age, having been under the ground for more than ~12 thousand years. Mapping where wells tap fossil aquifers is relevant for water quality and quantity management. Nevertheless, the prevalence of wells that tap fossil aquifers is not known. Here we show that wells that are sufficiently deep to tap fossil aquifers are widespread, though they remain outnumbered by shallower wells in most areas. Moreover, the proportion of newly drilled wells that are deep enough to tap fossil aquifers has increased over recent decades. However, this widespread and increased drilling of wells into fossil aquifers is not necessarily associated with groundwater depletion, emphasizing that the presence of fossil groundwater does not necessarily indicate a non-renewable water supply. Our results highlight the importance of safeguarding fossil groundwater quality and quantity to meet present and future water demands.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.