Hydrologic Setting

Hydrologic Setting: The eastern margin of the Ozark Aquifer discharges into the Mississippi River indirectly through alluvium and the Embayment. In the South the aquifer becomes saline between the Boston Mountains and the Arkansas River, though nature of the discharge is still under debate (Clark et al., 2019). There are thousands of feet between the river and the aquifer, and that water is thought to be diverted eastward into the Mississippi alluvium. The western boundary is a mixing zone between the low land saline Interior Plains Aquifer and incoming freshwater from the Ozark Aquifer which discharges diffusely into the Osage and Neosho Rivers. Figure 7 (Nottmeier, 2015) is a diagram illustrating aquifer flow and divides. The northern boundary discharges into the Missouri River through processes similar to the eastern margin.