Digital Earth: Colorado’s Groundwater: Our Hidden treasure
Fort Collins Museum of Discovery Tuesday 24 June 2025
Join us on for Colorado’s Groundwater: Our Hidden Treasure, another mesmerizing Tuesday Night Live event on June 24th when we present Colorado’s Groundwater: Our Hidden Treasure. KaChun Yu and Bob Raynolds of the Denver Museum of Science & Nature will reveal Colorado’s best kept water secret – groundwater! Yu and Raynolds will introduce us to Colorado’s Ogallala and Araphoe aquifers – finite resources that are rapidly diminishing. Using immersive imagery, we will discuss where this is heading and how these resources can be managed more sustainably.
The Ogallala aquifer irrigates corn used as feedstock for cattle, pigs and ethanol plants. In the 1930’s farmers hoped rain would follow the plow, but their square fields dried up and blew away with the wind. Discovery of the Ogallala, coupled with center pivot and centrifugal pump technology, allowed green crop circles to appear. Falling water levels, coupled with diminished flows and obligations to downstream states are forcing abandonment of these center pivot wells. The farming culture and economy is on the cusp of a transition to non-irrigated, no-till farming. This will involve high tech precision ag and farm consolidation. The circular fields are reverting to squares. Our program features space and ground-based imagery of these patterns.
South of Denver, the 2000 feet deep Arapahoe aquifer occurs in a buried alluvial fan that fed into the Denver Basin 68 million years. Water pumped from this aquifer allowed the rapid growth of communities like Parker and Castle Rock. Water levels fell precipitously (up to 30 feet per year) until the aquifer transitioned from confined to unconfined conditions.
Continued fall and dwindling production rates will increase pumping costs. Alternative sources of water will need to be found. High tech water recycling coupled with conservation and regional cooperation are already showing the way.
This talk features 3D modeling of the aquifer and discussions of geologic settings in Bolivia that furthered our understanding of the subsurface geology and geometry of this important aquifer.
This event is Pay What You Can. Please register HERE.
See you at the Museum!