scholarly journals The hydrogeologic information in cross-borehole complex conductivity data from an unconsolidated conglomeratic sedimentary aquifer

Geophysics ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 81 (6) ◽  
pp. E409-E421 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Binley ◽  
John Keery ◽  
Lee Slater ◽  
Warren Barrash ◽  
Mike Cardiff

Accurate estimation of the hydrological properties of near-surface aquifers is important because these properties strongly influence groundwater flow and solute transport. Laboratory-based investigations have indicated that induced polarization (IP) properties of porous media may be linked, through either semiempirical or fully mechanistic models, to hydrological properties including hydraulic conductivity. Therefore, there is a need for field assessments of the value of IP measurements in providing insights into the hydrological properties of aquifers. A cross-borehole IP survey was carried out at the Boise Hydrogeophysical Research Site (BHRS), an unconsolidated fluvial aquifer that has previously been well-studied with a variety of geophysical and hydrogeologic techniques. High-quality IP measurements were inverted, with careful consideration of the data error structure, to provide a 3D distribution of complex electrical conductivity values. The inverted distribution was further simplified using [Formula: see text]-means cluster analysis to divide the inverted volume into discrete zones with horizontal layering. Identified layers based on complex electrical conductivity inversions are in broad agreement with stratigraphic units identified in previous studies at the site. Although mostly subtle variations in the phase angle are recovered through inversion of field data, greater contrasts in the IP data are evident at some unit boundaries. However, in coarse-grained aquifers, such as the BHRS, the discrimination of mildly contrasting lithologic units and associated changes in hydraulic conductivity of one or two orders of magnitude are unlikely to be achieved through field IP surveys. Despite the difficulty of differentiating subtle differences between all units, overall estimates of hydraulic conductivity purely from our field IP data are typically within an order of magnitude of independently measured values.

Geophysics ◽  
1983 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. A. Kariya ◽  
T. J. Shankland

This study provides values of electrical conductivity of possible lower crustal materials to assist interpretation of lower crustal magnetotelluric soundings. We present mean values of conductivity measurements collected from the literature for dry mafic and silicic rocks in the temperature range of 500°C to 1000°C. We observe statistically significant differences between rock types: mafic rocks are better conductors than granites by about half an order of magnitude and within the mafic group, aphanitic (fine‐grained) rocks have higher conductivity than phaneritic (coarse‐grained) ones. “Best‐fitting” curves of log conductivity versus temperature are presented for each rock type to show mean log conductivity values together with standard deviations so that most probable temperature ranges can be inferred from conductivity. Because the laboratory rocks are dry, their conductivities are lower at a given temperature than they would be if fluids or volatiles were present; hence any temperatures inferred from magnetotelluric (MT) contivities are upper bounds.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Gbenga Williams ◽  
Oluwapelumi O. Ojuri

AbstractAs a result of heterogeneity nature of soils and variation in its hydraulic conductivity over several orders of magnitude for various soil types from fine-grained to coarse-grained soils, predictive methods to estimate hydraulic conductivity of soils from properties considered more easily obtainable have now been given an appropriate consideration. This study evaluates the performance of artificial neural network (ANN) being one of the popular computational intelligence techniques in predicting hydraulic conductivity of wide range of soil types and compared with the traditional multiple linear regression (MLR). ANN and MLR models were developed using six input variables. Results revealed that only three input variables were statistically significant in MLR model development. Performance evaluations of the developed models using determination coefficient and mean square error show that the prediction capability of ANN is far better than MLR. In addition, comparative study with available existing models shows that the developed ANN and MLR in this study performed relatively better.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sherif M. Hanafy ◽  
Hussein Hoteit ◽  
Jing Li ◽  
Gerard T. Schuster

AbstractResults are presented for real-time seismic imaging of subsurface fluid flow by parsimonious refraction and surface-wave interferometry. Each subsurface velocity image inverted from time-lapse seismic data only requires several minutes of recording time, which is less than the time-scale of the fluid-induced changes in the rock properties. In this sense this is real-time imaging. The images are P-velocity tomograms inverted from the first-arrival times and the S-velocity tomograms inverted from dispersion curves. Compared to conventional seismic imaging, parsimonious interferometry reduces the recording time and increases the temporal resolution of time-lapse seismic images by more than an order-of-magnitude. In our seismic experiment, we recorded 90 sparse data sets over 4.5 h while injecting 12-tons of water into a sand dune. Results show that the percolation of water is mostly along layered boundaries down to a depth of a few meters, which is consistent with our 3D computational fluid flow simulations and laboratory experiments. The significance of parsimonious interferometry is that it provides more than an order-of-magnitude increase of temporal resolution in time-lapse seismic imaging. We believe that real-time seismic imaging will have important applications for non-destructive characterization in environmental, biomedical, and subsurface imaging.


Author(s):  
Jeremy A. Hartsock ◽  
Jessica Piercey ◽  
Melissa K. House ◽  
Dale H. Vitt

AbstractThe experimental Sandhill Wetland is the first permanent reclamation of a composite tailings deposit, and annual water quality monitoring is of specific interest for evaluating and predicting long-term reclamation performance. Here, we present water chemistry monitoring data obtained from Sandhill Wetland (years 2009–2019) and compare results to twelve natural reference wetlands and to environmental quality guidelines for Alberta surface waters. By comparing water quality at Sandhill Wetland and natural sites to established guidelines, we can begin to document the natural background water quality of wetlands in the region and examine if guideline exceedances are seen in natural undisturbed environments, or appear only at active reclamation sites. At Sandhill Wetland the dominant ions in near-surface water were bicarbonate, sulfate, chloride, sodium, calcium, and magnesium. Since the first growing season concentrations for these ions have increased annually, causing concurrent increases in electrical conductivity. In year 2019, water chemistry at Sandhill Wetland was most comparable to regional saline fens, systems that exhibit elevated electrical conductivity and high sodicity. Near-surface water at Sandhill Wetland exceeded water quality guidelines for three substances/properties (dissolved chloride, iron, and total alkalinity) in the most recent year of monitoring. The saline fen natural sites also exceeded water quality guidelines for the same chemical substances/properties, suggesting guideline exceedances are a norm for some natural wetland site types in the region. Of note, in each year of monitoring at Sandhill Wetland, dissolved organic compounds evaluated in sub- and near-surface water were below detection limits.


Author(s):  
Samrit Luoma ◽  
Juha Majaniemi ◽  
Arto Pullinen ◽  
Juha Mursu ◽  
Joonas J. Virtasalo

AbstractThree-dimensional geological and groundwater flow models of a submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) site at Hanko (Finland), in the northern Baltic Sea, have been developed to provide a geological framework and a tool for the estimation of SGD rates into the coastal sea. The dataset used consists of gravimetric, ground-penetrating radar and shallow seismic surveys, drill logs, groundwater level monitoring data, field observations, and a LiDAR digital elevation model. The geological model is constrained by the local geometry of late Pleistocene and Holocene deposits, including till, glacial coarse-grained and fine-grained sediments, post-glacial mud, and coarse-grained littoral and aeolian deposits. The coarse-grained aquifer sediments form a shallow shore platform that extends approximately 100–250 m offshore, where the unit slopes steeply seawards and becomes covered by glacial and post-glacial muds. Groundwater flow preferentially takes place in channel-fill outwash coarse-grained sediments and sand and gravel interbeds that provide conduits of higher hydraulic conductivity, and have led to the formation of pockmarks on the seafloor in areas of thin or absent mud cover. The groundwater flow model estimated the average SGD rate per square meter of the seafloor at 0.22 cm day−1 in autumn 2017. The average SGD rate increased to 0.28 cm day−1 as a response to an approximately 30% increase in recharge in spring 2020. Sensitivity analysis shows that recharge has a larger influence on SGD rate compared with aquifer hydraulic conductivity and the seafloor conductance. An increase in recharge in this region will cause more SGD into the Baltic Sea.


Author(s):  
Sema Türkay ◽  
Adem Tataroğlu

AbstractRF magnetron sputtering was used to grow silicon nitride (Si3N4) thin film on GaAs substrate to form metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) capacitor. Complex dielectric permittivity (ε*), complex electric modulus (M*) and complex electrical conductivity (σ*) of the prepared Au/Si3N4/p-GaAs (MOS) capacitor were studied in detail. These parameters were calculated using admittance measurements performed in the range of 150 K-350 K and 50 kHz-1 MHz. It is found that the dielectric constant (ε′) and dielectric loss (ε″) value decrease with increasing frequency. However, as the temperature increases, the ε′ and ε″ increased. Ac conductivity (σac) was increased with increasing both temperature and frequency. The activation energy (Ea) was determined by Arrhenius equation. Besides, the frequency dependence of σac was analyzed by Jonscher’s universal power law (σac = Aωs). Thus, the value of the frequency exponent (s) were determined.


1994 ◽  
Vol 359 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jun Chen ◽  
Haiyan Zhang ◽  
Baoqiong Chen ◽  
Shaoqi Peng ◽  
Ning Ke ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTWe report here the results of our study on the properties of iodine-doped C60 thin films by IR and optical absorption, X-ray diffraction, and electrical conductivity measurements. The results show that there is no apparent structural change in the iodine-doped samples at room temperature in comparison with that of the undoped films. However, in the electrical conductivity measurements, an increase of more that one order of magnitude in the room temperature conductivity has been observed in the iodine-doped samples. In addition, while the conductivity of the undoped films shows thermally activated temperature dependence, the conductivity of the iodine-doped films was found to be constant over a fairly wide temperature range (from 20°C to 70°C) exhibiting a metallic feature.


Soil Research ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad Reza Neyshabouri ◽  
Mehdi Rahmati ◽  
Claude Doussan ◽  
Boshra Behroozinezhad

Unsaturated soil hydraulic conductivity K is a fundamental transfer property of soil but its measurement is costly, difficult, and time-consuming due to its large variations with water content (θ) or matric potential (h). Recently, C. Doussan and S. Ruy proposed a method/model using measurements of the electrical conductivity of soil core samples to predict K(h). This method requires the measurement or the setting of a range of matric potentials h in the core samples—a possible lengthy process requiring specialised devices. To avoid h estimation, we propose to simplify that method by introducing the particle-size distribution (PSD) of the soil as a proxy for soil pore diameters and matric potentials, with the Arya and Paris (AP) model. Tests of this simplified model (SM) with laboratory data on a broad range of soils and using the AP model with available, previously defined parameters showed that the accuracy was lower for the SM than for the original model (DR) in predicting K (RMSE of logK = 1.10 for SM v. 0.30 for DR; K in m s–1). However, accuracy was increased for SM when considering coarse- and medium-textured soils only (RMSE of logK = 0.61 for SM v. 0.26 for DR). Further tests with 51 soils from the UNSODA database and our own measurements, with estimated electrical properties, confirmed good agreement of the SM for coarse–medium-textured soils (<35–40% clay). For these textures, the SM also performed well compared with the van Genuchten–Mualem model. Error analysis of SM results and fitting of the AP parameter showed that most of the error for fine-textured soils came from poorer adequacy of the AP model’s previously defined parameters for defining the water retention curve, whereas this was much less so for coarse-textured soils. The SM, using readily accessible soil data, could be a relatively straightforward way to estimate, in situ or in the laboratory, K(h) for coarse–medium-textured soils. This requires, however, a prior check of the predictive efficacy of the AP model for the specific soil investigated, in particular for fine-textured/structured soils and when using previously defined AP parameters.


1993 ◽  
Vol 318 ◽  
Author(s):  
Navid S. Fatemi ◽  
Victor G. Weizer

ABSTRACTNear-theoretical-minimum values of specific contact resistivity, ρc (in the mid-to-low E-8 Ω-cm2 range) have been achieved for Ni-based contacts to moderately doped (2E18 cm−3) n-type InP. In each case these values are an order of magnitude lower than those previously achieved. These ultra-low resistivities are shown to result when the metallurgical interaction rate between the contact metal and the semiconductor is sufficiently reduced. Several methods of reducing the metal-InP reaction rate and thus achieving lowered resistivity values are demonstrated. We show, for instance, that the introduction of a thin (100Å) Au layer at the metal-InP interface retards metal-semiconductor intermixing during sintering and results in a ten-fold reduction in pc. Another method consists of ensuring the perfection of the near-surface InP lattice prior to and during contact deposition process. Use of this technique has enabled us to fabricate, for the first time, Ni-only contacts with pc values in the low E-8 Ω-cm2 range. We present an explanation for these observations that is based upon the magnitude of the In-to-P atomic ratio at the metal-InP interface.


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