You have entered the website of the Water and Environmental Research Institute of the Western Pacific (WERI) at the University of Guam. We are currently six faculty and five staff and our mission is to seek solutions through research, teaching and outreach programs, to issues and problems associated with the location, production, distribution and management of freshwater resources in Guam, the CNMI and the FSM.
The Mariana Limestone on Orote Peninsula has undergone diagenetic modification under marine phreatic, freshwater [phreatic] and freshwater vadose conditions. Marine diagenetic modification from internal sediment fill, submarine cementation and borings have produced partial to complete occlusion of primary interparticle porosity. Marine sediments are lithified by cements similar to those found in the modern reef complex. Within the freshwater phreatic environment, nearly all interparticle porosity is occluded with some secondary porosity generation. There has also been preferential dissolution of primarily aragonitic clasts, which creates distinctive moldic porosity. There is only minor diagenetic alteration within the freshwater vadose environment.
