Hydrochemical Processes and Environmental Isotopic Study of Groundwater in Kuwait

Abstract

The present paper studies the hydrochemical processes and the isotopic characteristics of the main aquifers, the Kuwait Group and Dammam aquifers in the State of Kuwait. The water chemical types are dominantly NaCl and Na 2 SO 4 in the Kuwait Group aquifer and Na 2 SO 4 , CaSO 4 , and NaCl in the Dammam Limestone aquifer. The groundwater of the Kuwait Group aquifer is supersaturated with respect to quartz and calcite, and near saturation with respect to aragonite, but under-saturated with respect to anhydrite, dolomite, gypsum, and halite. While the groundwater of the Dammam aquifer is strongly under-saturated with respect to anhydrite, halite, and gypsum and is supersaturated with respect to quartz, dolomite, aragonite, and calcite. The saturation indices of the calcite and dolomite are increased in the direction of flow from southwest toward north-northeast. Al-Rawdhatain and Umm Al-Aish groundwater samples lie near the meteoric water line. They represent the effect of recharge by rainfall during pluvial period. The brackish palaeo-groundwater of the Dammam aquifer has low values of δ 18 O (-4.5 per mil) and δD (-35 per mil), which reveal that these waters are related to the palaeo-water from the cool wet period in the eastern Arabia 11,000 to 60,000 years B.P. The investigated brackish groundwater samples showed that the deuterium excess values are much lower than that of the Mediterranean areas. This may suggest that the evaporation was a prevailing process before the infiltration to the aquifers.

Late‐Pleistocene precipitation δ18O interpolated across the global landmass

“…[]; Al‐Mashaikhi et al . []; Al‐Ruwaih and Shehata []; Andrews et al . []; Aravena and Wassenaar []; Asmerom et al .…”

Global Isotope Hydrogeology―Review

“…Negative ∆δ 18 O late‐Pleistocene values characterize the large majority (82%) of global records, suggesting late‐Pleistocene precipitation had lower δ 18 O values than late‐Holocene precipitation across most of the global landmass (Jasechko, ). Studies have highlighted that lower‐than‐modern late‐Pleistocene precipitation δ 18 O values (i.e., negative ∆δ 18 O late‐Pleistocene values) may possibly arise due to (i) regional atmospheric cooling and concomitant impacts on temperature‐driven rainout (Vogel & Ehhalt, ; Bath et al, ; Blavoux & Olive, ; Vogel, ; Love et al, ; Dutton, ; Le Gal La Salle, Fontes, et al, ; Mazor et al, ; Kloppmann et al, ; Dodo & Zuppi, ; Aeschbach‐Hertig et al, ; Meyer et al, ; Guendouz et al, ; Kulongoski et al, ; Chen et al, ; Zhu et al, ; Currell et al, ; Kreuzer et al, ; Ma et al, ; Rango et al, ; He et al, ; Bakari, Aagaard, Vogt, Ruden, Johansen, & Vuai, ; Sokolovskii et al, ; Trabelsi et al, ; Corcho Alvarado et al, ; Ma et al, ; Samborska et al, ; Kusano et al, ; Martinelli et al, ; van Geldern et al, ; Bahir et al, ); (ii) changes to the seasonality of groundwater recharge ratios (Smith et al, ; von Rohden et al, ); (iii) changes to the seasonality of precipitation (Phillips et al, ; J. Li, et al, ); (iv) shifts in monsoon strength (Currell et al, ; Kreuzer et al, ); (v) changes to regional humidity levels (Adiaffi et al, ; Bajjali & Abu‐Jaber, ; Beyerle et al, ; Derwich et al, ; Dodo & Zuppi, ; Ettayfi et al, ; Gastmans et al, ; Huneau et al, ; Kumar et al, ; Ma et al, ; Rango et al, ; Yangui et al, ); (vi) declines in precipitation from a wetter late‐Pleistocene to a drier late‐Holocene (Al‐Ruwaih & Shehata, ; Bakari, Aagaard, Vogt, Ruden, Brennwald, et a...…”

“…Precipitation δ 18 O values plotted in panel b are ‘amount‐weighted’ over the entire period of record, meaning time‐steps during which more precipitation fell are weighted more than those during which less precipitation fell. Groundwater δ 18 O data presented here are derived from the United States' National Water Information System (data downloaded May 2018 from www.waterqualitydata.us) and from data sets compiled from the following n = 435 references (Al Faitouri & Sanford, ; Abid et al, ; Abid et al, ; Abid et al, ; Abouelmagd et al, ; Abu‐Jaber & Kharabsheh, ; Adams et al, ; Adiaffi et al, ; Adomako et al, ; Aeschbach‐Hertig et al, ; Aggarwal et al, ; Ahmad & Green, ; Ahmed et al, ; Ako Ako et al, ; Al‐Charideh & Abou‐Zakhem, ; Al‐Charideh, ; Al‐Charideh & Kattan, ; Al‐Charideh & Hasan, ; Alemayehu et al, ; Al‐Katheeri et al, ; Allen, ; Al‐Mashaikhi et al, ; Alpers & Whittemore, ; Al‐Ruwaih & Shehata, ; Alsaaran, ; Alyamani, ; Amer et al, ; Andre et al, ; Andrews et al, ; Andrews, Edmunds, et al, ; Andrews, Fontes, et al, ; Aravena et al, ; Arslan et al, ; Atkinson et al, ; Awad, ; Awad et al, ; Awad et al, ; Awad, ; Back et al, ; Bahati et al, ; Bajjali & Abu‐Jaber, ; Bajjali, ; Bakari, Aagaard, Vogt, Ruden, Brennwald, et al, ; Baker, ; Barbecot et al, ; Batista, Santiago, Frischkorn, Filho, & Forster, ; Bayari et al, ; Bennetts et al, ; Berg & Pearson, ; Beyerle et al, ; Beyerle et al, ; Bhatia et al, ; Bhattacharya et al, ; Blomqvist, ; Böhlke et al, ; Bouchaou e...…”

Hydrochemical Processes and Isotopic Study of Geothermal Springs within Soutpansberg, Limpopo Province, South Africa

“…The knowledge of the groundwater system and chemical Gonfiantini [6] reported that environmental hydrogen and oxygen isotopes are ideal tracers of water systems since they are incorporated in the water molecules and therefore their behaviour and variations reflect the origin, the hydrological and geochemical processes that affect natural water bodies. Environmental isotopes with hydrochemical data are viable tools for understanding groundwater dynamics within the Soutpansberg basin because they provide critical information about sources of groundwater recharge, timing of recharge, water-rock interaction along flow paths, and mixing of distinct groundwater bodies [7]. This is despite the fact that groundwater is greatly affected by the geochemical processes occurring within the groundwater and interaction with the aquifer material leading to seasonal and spatial variations in the groundwater chemistry [8].…”