Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID NY_2025_Morin

Are the Mysterious Seneca Drums an Unaccounted-for Natural Source of Geologically Formed Methane and Chloride to Seneca Lake?

Institute: New York
Year Established: 2025 Start Date: 2026-01-01 End Date: 2026-12-31
Total Federal Funds: $34,460 Total Non-Federal Funds: $34,608

Principal Investigators: Tim Morin, Lewis Mccaffrey

Project Summary: Seneca Lake has been documented for hundreds of years to produce booming ?Seneca Drums,? the origin of which is still unknown. Its chloride levels are shifting in ways that known sources cannot explain. We propose a simple test of a hypothesis that links these phenomena: small craters on the lakebed (?pockmarks?) may act as conduits where deep saline groundwater and geologic gases enter the lake. We will collect deep-water samples in and around pockmarks at the south end of Seneca, compare them with a northern deep plain that does not have pockmarks. Measurements will include chloride, dissolved methane, dissolved oxygen, and methane carbon isotopes to distinguish geologic from biological sources. Outcomes will determine whether pockmarks actively leak saline groundwater and methane, helping explain both the Seneca Drums and the chloride budget in a drinking-water source for over 100,000 people.