After four years, WERI’s Northern Guam Lens Aquifer (NGLA) Tour for educators and professionals makes its return.
The field trip began in the morning of May 10, 2024 at the University of Guam. Attendees were taken on a virtual tour of the aquifer, led by Dr. Nathan Habana. During this presentation, attendees were able to witness a 3D model of Guam’s hydrology that highlights notable features beneath the topography of Guam.
After getting a preview of the NGLA, attendees boarded a bus, where they began their field trip to four core locations that underscore the main components of the NGLA.
At the first stop by Channel 10, field trip participants got to see the basement rock of the aquifer, the Alutom formation at the top of Mt. Alutom. From this summit, they were able to view the NGLA plateau from the southern part of Guam.
The second stop was at the DPW Quarry in Dededo. Here, the major and most yielding water bearing rock of the NGLA is made of the Barrigada Limestone.
Moving forward to a WWII Japanese headquarter, Mataguac Hill Peace Memorial Park in Yigo, participants were able to view an outcrop of the Alutom formation that stores and streams water into a contact cave (a volcanic-limestone surface contact cave opening).
Lastly, at the fourth and final stop of the tour, participants visited Mt. Santa Rosa in Yigo. From this location, they were able to get a perspective view from northern Guam at the highest point of the NGLA atop Mt. Santa Rosa. This is another Alutom rock outcrop in the NGLA, much larger than the one from the previous stop in Mataguac Hill.
The success of this field trip is attributed to the coordination and organization with UOG’s Global Learning & Engagement (GLE) team. The WERI team expresses their appreciation and gratitude on their collaboration for this event with the GLE team.
This latest tour also marks the relaunch of the NGLA field trip series, which took place once or twice a year in the past. Opportunities such as this tour allow educators and professionals to learn about Guam’s main source of water firsthand and earn continuing education units (CEU’s).
WERI workshops on the NGLA are planned for the near future and more updates will be provided soon. To get the latest information regarding this and future events, please continue to visit the Guam Hydrologic Survey (GHS) website or the WERI events page.
