Walden Pond and the underlying and surrounding aquifer are bordered by the Sudbury and Concord Rivers (fig. 1). Walden Pond, a kettle-hole lake with no surface water inlet or outlet, formed at the end of the last glaciation about15,000 years ago by the melting of a large block of ice that broke off into glacial Lake Sudbury from the retreating glacier. The ice block eventually was surrounded by sorted, stratified sediments ranging mainly from fine sand to coarse gravel deposited by glacial meltwater (fig. 2), (Koteff, 1963). Seismic reflection and fathometer data indicate that the lake and its associated fine-grained bottom sediments extend to the till and bedrock surface in the deepest areas. Three deep areas are defined in the lake (fig. 3); the middle deep area was unmapped before this investigation. The maximum measured depth of 100.1 feet (ft) was within 2 ft of that measured by Thoreau in the winter of 1846.
Knowledge of the water balance and the land-surface area contributing water to Walden Pond is needed to understand the hydrology of the lake and to derive a nutrient budget for the lake. Sources of water to Walden Pond include precipitation on the lake surface and ground water (fig. 2). Water from precipitation infiltrates the permeable surficial deposits, recharges the aquifer, then flows in the direction of decreasing water levels. Thus, ground-water flow does not necessarily follow land surface topography. Along steep shoreline areas sloping towards Walden Pond, small quantities of overland flow may occur after intense precipitation events, thereby adding small amounts of water to the lake. Water leaves Walden Pond by evaporation from the lake surface and from lake-water seepage to the aquifer (fig. 2).
