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Hydrology of Lake Amadeus, a groundwater-discharge playa in central Australia

Created 16/10/2025

Updated 16/10/2025

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Lake Amadeus, a large playa in central Australia, is part of a 500 km long groundwater discharge zone, which extends from Lake Hopkins, in Western Australia, to the Finke River. In this zone, groundwater discharges and evaporates at playa surfaces over a total area of 1750 km2. Groundwater flows towards Lake Amadeus in Cainozoic sediments which overlie fractured Proterozoic bedrock. Sediments beneath the lake bed are saturated with sodium-magnesium chloride rich brine, which contains about 250 g/L total dissolved solids. The lake bed is generally dry and contains areas of heaved gypsum ground and slightly lower, flat, halite-encrusted zones which are occasionally flooded. Gypsum is actively precipitating in the capillary zone above the water-table, which is generally at a depth of 0.30-0.50 m. In Lake Amadeus and other nearby playas the total mass of salt stored is estimated as about 6000 million tonnes and this has accumulated in about 12000 years. Water-budget calculations show that groundwater recharge in the catchment of 90 000km2 is approximately 1 mm/year, which is only 0.4 per cent of the incident rainfall.

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Field Value
Title Hydrology of Lake Amadeus, a groundwater-discharge playa in central Australia
Language eng
Licence Not Specified
Landing Page https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/3beb71c3-e88d-4dc3-bc4b-e74623a9137a
Contact Point
Geoscience Australia Data
clientservices@ga.gov.au
Reference Period 20/04/2018
Geospatial Coverage
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors
{
  "coordinates": [
    [
      [
        127.22,
        -27.91
      ],
      [
        134.16,
        -27.91
      ],
      [
        134.16,
        -22.26
      ],
      [
        127.22,
        -22.26
      ],
      [
        127.22,
        -27.91
      ]
    ]
  ],
  "type": "Polygon"
}
Data Portal Geoscience Australia

Data Source

This dataset was originally found on Geoscience Australia "Hydrology of Lake Amadeus, a groundwater-discharge playa in central Australia". Please visit the source to access the original metadata of the dataset:
https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/csw/dataset/hydrology-of-lake-amadeus-a-groundwater-discharge-playa-in-central-australia