Geophysical signatures of the Saraswati River palaeochannel in a part of Kurukshetra district, Haryana, India

The palaeochannel is one of the promising features to hold a considerable amount of groundwater and acts as an underground reservoir for supplementing groundwater resources. There is a need for site-specific studies for exploring new areas for further groundwater prospecting in the wake of dwindling groundwater resources. The groundwater exploration studies have been conducted along and across the possible Saraswati River palaeochannel in a part of the Kurukshetra district of Haryana to understand the subsurface groundwater regime. Electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) surveys were conducted at Garhi Roran and Indbari villages of Kurukshetra district, Haryana. The ERT results indicate broadly three distinct lithological units up to the explored depth of 20 meters (m). The third layer showed relatively higher resistivity in comparison to the second layer. Therefore, vertical electrical sounding (VES) surveys were conducted in the study area at eight villages in the Kurukshetra district, including Garhi Roran and Indbari villages. The inverted model was correlated with the available lithological information for various lithological units. The maximum depth of investigation derived from the VES surveys was found to be 120 m. Further, a palaeo-path of high resistivity was delineated from 15 to 50 m depth and the width of the palaeochannel was interpreted as about 10–12 km. The hydrological data analysis of nearby bore wells shows a highly productive zone of good-quality groundwater. The analysis of Dar–Zarrouk (D–Z) parameters also indicates the presence of palaeochannel in the study area.