Fossil aquifers hold ancient groundwater ecosystems still drink today
Some deep aquifers were filled by rains of past wet climates or melting ice sheets — water that may be thousands to tens of thousands of years old and barely recharged today.
Springs, oasis wetlands, and deep-rooted plants can still depend on that fossil groundwater. Pumping faster than recharge mines a finite inheritance rather than a renewable flow.
Not all underground water is this year’s rain. Fossil aquifers are buried climate archives that living landscapes continue to sip long after the wet age ended.
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