OUCC Proceedings 11 (1983)

Stephen Gale

An attempt was made to assess the relative magnitude of a number of springs, resurgences and cave flows in the Los Lagos-Rio Cares area. Although such an exercise cannot hope to characterise flows which may vary widely in response, regime, catchment and aquifer type, it is hoped that it might at least provide an indication of the relative importance of various flows in the area. All measurements were made within a seven-day period during which negligible rainfall occurred, and during a prolonged spell of relatively dry weather. The values may therefore provide some crude comparison of approximate baseflows in the area. By and large, the results shown in Table 1 speak for themselves. However, it is interesting to note the discrepancy between the discharge at the terminal sump of Cueva del Osu and that at the resurgence of El Hoya la Madre, particularly since El Hoya la Madre has been proposed as the resurgence for the waters of Osu. If this is the case, then Osu provides only a minor contribution to the discharge at the resurgence under baseflow conditions.

Acknowledgements: Thanks to Nick 'Wingnut' England, Jan Huning and Helen Kay for their help in measuring discharge and fishing me out of resurgences.

References

• Drew, D.P., 1-5. The limestone hydrology of the Hendip Hills. In Smith, D.I. (ed.), Limestones and Caves of the Mendip Hills. David & Charles, Newton Abbot, 171-213.
• Meinzer, 0.E., 1942., Ground water. In Meinzer, O.E. (ed.), Hydrology. Dover, New York, 385-477.

Table 1. Discharge measurements in the karst of the Los Lagos-Rio Cares area, Asturias, Northern Spain.  

 Magnitude: 1 = Meinzer (1942);.2 = Drew (1975)