Quick Search:    advanced search

GSW Home   GeoRef Home   My GSW Alerts   Contact GSW   About GSW   Journals List   Help

This Article Figures Only Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Johnson, T. M. Articles by Murrell, M. T. Search for Related Content GeoRef GeoRef Citation

Groundwater "fast paths" in the Snake River Plain aquifer: Radiogenic isotope ratios as natural groundwater tracers

¹ Geology Department, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 245 Natural History Building, MC-102, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA
² Environmental Science and Waste Technology Division, MS J514, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA
³ Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, P.O. Box 1625, Idaho Falls, Idaho 83415, USA
⁴ Water Resources Division, MS 420, U.S. Geological Survey, 345 Middlefield Road, Menlo Park, California 94025, USA
⁵ Berkeley Center for Isotope Geochemistry, Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
⁶ Earth Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
⁷ Water Resources Division, U.S. Geological Survey, 8505 Research Way, Middleton, Wisconsin 53562, USA
⁸ U.S. Geological Survey, 900 North Skyline Drive, Idaho Falls, Idaho 83402, USA
⁹ Chemical Science and Technology Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA

Preferential flow paths are expected in many groundwater systems and must be located because they can greatly affect contaminant transport. The fundamental characteristics of radiogenic isotope ratios in chemically evolving waters make them highly effective as preferential flow path indicators. These ratios tend to be more easily interpreted than solute-concentration data because their response to water-rock interaction is less complex. We demonstrate this approach with groundwater ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios in the Snake River Plain aquifer within and near the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory. These data reveal slow-flow zones as lower ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr areas created by prolonged interaction with the host basalts and a relatively fast flowing zone as a high ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr area.

Key Words: groundwater tracers • isotope ratios • Snake River Plain • aquifer properties • aqueous solutions

This article has been cited by other articles:

				C. GULER and G. D. THYNE Statistical Clustering of Major Solutes: Use as a Tracer for Evaluating Interbasin Groundwater Flow into Indian Wells Valley, California Environmental and Engineering Geoscience, February 1, 2006; 12(1): 53 - 65. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				R. P. Smith Geologic Setting of the Snake River Plain Aquifer and Vadose Zone Vadose Zone J., February 1, 2004; 3(1): 47 - 58. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				R. C. Roback, T. M. Johnson, T. L. McLing, M. T. Murrell, S. Luo, and T.-L. Ku Uranium isotopic evidence for groundwater chemical evolution and flow patterns in the eastern Snake River Plain aquifer, Idaho Geological Society of America Bulletin, September 1, 2001; 113(9): 1133 - 1141. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]