Introduction and Scope

Purpose and Scope of this Project: The USGS (United States Geological Survey) interest in the Ozark Aquifer has resulted in new reports and research from 2006 to present. The USGS goal was to model the Ozark Aquifer in Modflow (USGS groundwater model software) and quantify the water balance for future planning of regional water resources. Much of these data were not available until 4 or 5 years ago. The content breadth in this paper is limited as much as practicable to the St. Francois Mountains and Salem Plateau provinces of the Ozarks. The distribution of this information is meant to be enjoyable to the citizens of this region and necessary for them to be good stewards of their resources.

Introduction: There is a landscape of wonders beneath your feet and above your head. The physiographic features of the Ozark Aquifer are clearly revealed above and below the apparent surface and spans Southern Missouri with parts of Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. According to Hawker (1992), the Ozarks became in the Precambrian from 2 -1.5 billion years ago as volcanic flows, vents, and plutons that pushed a landscape above the ocean. Though life is 3 or more billion years old, fossils from this region were unknown until recent times. This landscape, now called the St. François Mountains, were but an island arc in the ocean of Precambrian times. These same rock layers both metamorphic and igneous form the bottom layer of the Ozark Aquifer, a basement from which to start a tour through this aquifer.