scholarly journals Shallow groundwater chemical evolution, isotopic hyperfiltration, and salt pan formation in a hypersaline endorheic basin: Pilot Valley, Great Basin, USA

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. L. Mayo ◽  
D. G. Tingey
Keyword(s):  
Great Basin ◽  
Chemical Evolution ◽  
Isotopic Fractionation ◽  
Shallow Groundwater ◽  
Alluvial Fan ◽  
Mineral Dissolution ◽  
Driving Mechanism ◽  
Evaporative Water ◽  
Salt Pan ◽  
Endorheic Basin

AbstractEndorheic basin brines are of economic significance as sources of boron, iodine, magnesium, potassium, sodium sulfate, sodium carbonate, and tungsten, and they are a major source of the critical metal lithium. Although evaporation is the primary hypersalinization driver for evaporative water bodies, recent investigations have proposed more novel mechanisms for some subsurface brine. This investigation explores shallow groundwater hypersalinization. The chemical evolution and isotopic fractionation of shallow hypersaline groundwater in the clay-rich arid endorheic basin sediments of Pilot Valley, Great Basin (USA), were investigated. Groundwater evolves from fresh in the mountain bedrock and alluvial fans, to brackish and saline at the alluvial fan–playa interface, and to hypersaline in the upper 12 m of basin sediments. Alluvial fan systems are isolated from each other and have varying groundwater 3H and 14C travel times. Nonevaporative in-situ isotopic fractionation of up to −8‰ in δ18O is attributed to clay sequence hyperfiltration. Groundwater flow-path sulfate and chloride mineral dissolution is the primary driving mechanism for both interface and basin groundwater evolution. Evaporation only impacts the groundwater quality in a small portion of the basin where the groundwater is within ~1 m of the ground surface. Here capillary action carries dissolved soluble salts to the land surface. Episodic flooding redissolves and carries the precipitated salt to the annually flooded salt pan where it accumulates as a salt crust during the dry season. The Pilot Valley model may help explain the buildup accumulative layers of soluble salt that when remobilized becomes subsurface brine.

scholarly journals Shallow groundwater flow and inverted fresh/saline-water interface in a hypersaline endorheic basin (Great Basin, USA)

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (8) ◽  
pp. 2877-2902
Author(s):  
Alan L. Mayo ◽  
David G. Tingey ◽  
Kevin A. Rey ◽  
Tony D. Winkel ◽  
John H. McBride ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Hydraulic Conductivity ◽  
Groundwater Flow ◽  
Great Basin ◽  
Saline Water ◽  
Salinity Gradient ◽  
Hydraulic Head ◽  
Alluvial Fan ◽  
Lake Bonneville ◽  
Pressure Ridge ◽  
Endorheic Basin

AbstractPilot Valley is an 828-km2 arid-region endorheic basin in western USA. Bounding mountain ranges rise as much as 1,900 m above the nearly flat 379-km2 playa floor. Up to 3.8 m of Pleistocene Lake Bonneville mud and thin oolitic sand layers form the surface layer of the basin floor. Groundwater conditions were evaluated using data from shallow monitoring wells and borings, springs, infiltrometer measurements, slug and dilution tests, geophysical transects, and precision elevation surveys. Alluvial fan groundwater discharges at fan/playa interface springs and underflows to the shallow basin sediments along the western side of the basin; the groundwater only underflows along the eastern side. Precision surveying established a Lake Bonneville shore-line break in slope as the cause of the spring discharges. Tectonic tilting causes groundwater to flow from east to west and to the topographic low. Monthly measured and pressure transducer data established seasonal pressure responses and upward groundwater gradients. All basin groundwater is lost to evapotranspiration at the topographic low, where a thin salt pan has developed. Groundwater evolves from fresh to hypersaline near the alluvial fan/playa interface where there is an inverted salinity gradient and a groundwater pressure ridge. The pressure ridge and inverted salinity interface are due to: (1) osmotic pressure established between the oolitic sand of high hydraulic conductivity and the overlying low-hydraulic-conductivity lake mud at the fan/playa interface, and (2) the collision between fresh groundwater flow driven by a steep hydraulic head and hypersaline groundwater flow driven by a nearly flat hydraulic head.

Modeling the Evaporation Line of Lake Water Isotopes in Golmud Drainage Basin, P.R. China

2012 ◽  
Vol 518-523 ◽  
pp. 4186-4193 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hong Yun Ma ◽  
Li He Yin ◽  
Li Guo ◽  
Jun Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Regression Analysis ◽  
Relative Humidity ◽  
Lake Water ◽  
Drainage Basin ◽  
Qaidam Basin ◽  
Isotopic Fractionation ◽  
Shallow Groundwater ◽  
Water Isotopes ◽  
Analysis Method ◽  
Salt Composition

The δD-δ18O line features are very important properties of isotopic characteristics. The δD-δ18O line usually is estimated by regression analysis when samples are sufficient. In thisSuperscript textpaper, the isotopic characteristic of rain water, shallow groundwater and lake water in Golmud drainage area of Qaidam Basin were analyzed, and the isotopic evaporation line of lake water was calculated with Rayleigh fractionation function because the regression analysis method is insufficient in the condition that measured samples of lake water are short. The result shows that the groundwater is the main source of lakes; and the isotopic fractionation of hydrogen and oxygen in lake water controlled by kinetic effect in the process of evaporation. The calculated evaporation line of lake water is δD=3.26δ18O-21.00, which is matched with measured samples. The sensitivity analysis of the slop to the temperature, dissolved salt composition in lake water and relative humidity of air shows that the slop is negative related to the temperature and dissolved composition and is positive related to relative humidity. In typical environmental condition, the slop is increased by 0.0303, 0.1016 and 0.0205, respectively, when temperature decreased 1°C, dissolved NaCl decreased 1mol/L and relative humidity increased by 1%.

scholarly journals Modelling Shallow Groundwater Evaporation Rates from a Large Tank Experiment

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolò Colombani ◽  
Davide Fronzi ◽  
Stefano Palpacelli ◽  
Mattia Gaiolini ◽  
Maria Pia Gervasio ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Temperature Increase ◽  
Shallow Groundwater ◽  
Atmospheric Temperature ◽  
Coarse Sand ◽  
Effective Porosity ◽  
Mineral Dissolution ◽  
Groundwater Salinity ◽  
Unknown Parameters ◽  
Large Tank ◽  
Groundwater Evaporation

AbstractA large tank (1.4 m x 4.0 m x 1.3 m) filled with medium-coarse sand was employed to measure evaporation rates from shallow groundwater at controlled laboratory conditions, to determine drivers and mechanisms. To monitor the groundwater level drawdown 12 piezometers were installed in a semi regular grid and equipped with high precision water level, temperature, and electrical conductivity (EC) probes. In each piezometer, 6 micro sampling ports were installed every 10 cm to capture vertical salinity gradients. Moreover, the soil water content, temperature and EC were measured in the unsaturated zone using TDR probes placed at 5, 20 and 40 cm depth. The monitoring started in February 2020 and lasted for 4 months until the groundwater drawdown became residual. To model the groundwater heads, temperature, and salinity variations SEAWAT 4.0 was employed. The calibrated model was then used to obtain the unknown parameters, such as: maximum evaporation rates (1.5-4.4 mm/d), extinction depth (0.90 m), mineral dissolution (5.0e-9 g/d) and evaporation concentration (0.35 g/L). Despite the drawdown was uniformly distributed, the increase of groundwater salinity was rather uneven, while the temperature increase mimicked the atmospheric temperature increase. The initial groundwater salinity and the small changes in the evaporation rate controlled the evapoconcentration process in groundwater, while the effective porosity was the most sensitive parameter. This study demonstrates that shallow groundwater evaporation from sandy soils can produce homogeneous water table drawdown but appreciable differences in the distribution of groundwater salinity.

scholarly journals Groundwater recharge by high-salinity lake water in a density-driven flow dominated system: an isotopic approach

2019 ◽  
Vol 98 ◽  
pp. 12024
Author(s):  
Nicolás Valiente ◽  
David Sanz ◽  
Juan José Gómez-Alday
Keyword(s):  
Groundwater Recharge ◽  
Saline Water ◽  
Regression Line ◽  
Chloride Concentration ◽  
Shallow Groundwater ◽  
Discharge Zone ◽  
Density Driven Flow ◽  
Terminal Lakes ◽  
Endorheic Basin

Pétrola Lake is a terminal lake located in the discharge zone of an endorheic basin. Terminal lakes may be responsible for a significant amount of recharge from evaporated saline water, increasing the salinity of the shallow groundwater. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the interaction between groundwater and saline water from Pétrola Lake in order to improve the knowledge of groundwater recharge processes by density-driven flow (DDF) in terminal lakes. To achieve this goal, hydrochemical (chloride concentration) and stable isotope (δ18O and δDH2O) data were used. The isotopic composition of 190 groundwater and surface water samples collected between September 2008 and July 2015 provide a regression line (δDH2O = 5.0·δ18O – 14.3‰, R2 = 0.95) consistent with dominant evaporation processes. In the basin, groundwater recharge is mainly produced by Atlantic-derived precipitation. In the lake, isotope data suggested that the loss of water occurred at humidity values between 60% and 75%. The saline boundary layer is formed at elevated salt concentrations. Leakage from the lake to the underlying aquifer would take place with salinities from 1.24 g/cm3 by means of the DDF. This study contributes to better understand the role of DDF in terminal lakes.

scholarly journals A Top-to-Bottom Luminescence-Based Chronology for the Post-LGM Regression of a Great Basin Pluvial Lake

Quaternary ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Munroe ◽  
Caleb Walcott ◽  
William Amidon ◽  
Joshua Landis
Keyword(s):  
Great Basin ◽  
Alluvial Fan ◽  
Luminescence Dating ◽  
Water Volume ◽  
Lake Basin ◽  
Horizontal Distance ◽  
Lake Area ◽  
Glacial Cycle ◽  
Sandy Gravel ◽  
14C Age

We applied luminescence dating to a suite of shorelines constructed by pluvial Lake Clover in northeastern Nevada, USA during the last glacial cycle. At its maximum extent, the lake covered 740 km2 with a mean depth of 16 m and a water volume of 13 km3. In the north-central sector of the lake basin, 10 obvious beach ridges extend from the highstand to the lowest shoreline over a horizontal distance of ~1.5 km, representing a lake area decrease of 35%. These ridges are primarily composed of sandy gravel and rise ~1.0 m above the alluvial fan surface on which they are superposed. Single grain luminescence dating of K-feldspar using the pIRIR SAR (post-infrared infrared single-aliquot regenerative dose) protocol, corroborated by SAR dating of quartz, indicates that the highstand shoreline was constructed ca. 16–17 ka during Heinrich Stadial I (Greenland Stadial 2, GS-2), matching 14C age control for this shoreline elsewhere in the basin. The lake regressed rapidly during the Bølling/Allerød (GI-1), before the rate of regression slowed during the Younger Dryas interval (GS-1). The lowest shoreline was constructed ca. 10 ka. Persistence of Lake Clover into the early Holocene may reflect enhanced monsoonal precipitation driven by the summer insolation maximum.

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