Noble Gas Thermometry in Groundwater Hydrology

Aeschbach–Hertig, Werner; Solomon, D. Kip

doi:10.1007/978-3-642-28836-4_5

Cited by 79 publications

(106 citation statements)

References 140 publications

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“…Dissolved noble gas measurements can also be used to quantify oceanic processes such as gas ventilation in deep-water formation regions, diapycnal mixing, and sea ice melting and formation (Loose and Jenkins, 2014;Eveleth et al, 2014;Nicholson et al, 2010;Hamme and Severinghaus, 2007). On land, measurements of noble gases in groundwater can be used to generate paleotemperature records and for studies of groundwater-aquifer and groundwater-ocean interactions (Aeschbach-Hertig and Solomon, 2013;Castro et al, 1998;Stute and Schlosser, 1993).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Insight into chemical, biological, and physical processes in coastal waters from dissolved oxygen and inert gas tracers

Manning¹

2017

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In this thesis, I use coastal measurements of dissolved O 2 and inert gases to provide insight into the chemical, biological, and physical processes that impact the oceanic cycles of carbon and dissolved gases. Dissolved O 2 concentration and triple isotopic composition trace net and gross biological productivity. The saturation states of inert gases trace physical processes, such as air-water gas exchange, temperature change, and mixing, that affect all gases.First, I developed a field-deployable system that measures Ne, Ar, Kr, and Xe gas ratios in water. It has precision and accuracy of 1 % or better, enables near-continuous measurements, and has much lower cost compared to existing laboratory-based methods. The system will increase the scientific community's access to use dissolved noble gases as environmental tracers.Second, I measured O 2 and five noble gases during a cruise in Monterey Bay, California. I developed a vertical model and found that accurately parameterizing bubble-mediated gas exchange was necessary to accurately simulate the He and Ne measurements. I present the first comparison of multiple gas tracer, incubation, and sediment trap-based productivity estimates in the coastal ocean. Net community production estimated from 15 NO -3 uptake and O 2 /Ar gave equivalent results at steady state. Underway O 2 /Ar measurements revealed submesoscale variability that was not apparent from daily incubations.Third, I quantified productivity by O 2 mass balance and air-water gas exchange by dual tracer ( 3 He/SF 6 ) release during ice melt in the Bras d'Or Lakes, a Canadian estuary. The gas transfer velocity at >90 % ice cover was 6 % of the rate for nearly ice-free conditions. Rates of volumetric gross primary production were similar when the estuary was completely ice-covered and ice-free, and the ecosystem was on average net autotrophic during ice melt and net heterotrophic following ice melt. I present a method for incorporating the isotopic composition of H 2 O into the O 2 isotope-based productivity calculations, which increases the estimated gross primary production in this study by 46-97 %.In summary, I describe a new noble gas analysis system and apply O 2 and inert gas observations in new ways to study chemical, biological, and physical processes in coastal waters.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Insight into chemical, biological, and physical processes in coastal waters from dissolved oxygen and inert gas tracers

Manning¹

2017

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“…Noble gases have been extensively used in both paleogroundwater (Aeschbach-Hertig and Solomon, 2013;Kipfer et al, 2002) and hydrocarbon system studies to constrain recharge and hydrocarbon generation and accumulation conditions (Ballentine et al, 2002;Holland and Gilfillan, 2013;Prinzhofer, 2013;Byrne et al, 2017). The dissolution of noble gases into groundwater is controlled by partial pressure, water temperature, and salinity at recharge.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Determining fluid migration and isolation times in multiphase crustal domains using noble gases

Barry

Lawson

Meurer

et al. 2017

Geology

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. (2017) 'Determining uid migration and isolation times in multiphase crustal domains using noble gases. ', Geology., 45 (9). pp. 775-778. Further information on publisher's website:https://doi.org/10.1130/G38900.1Publisher's copyright statement: c 2017 The Authors. Gold Open Access: This paper is published under the terms of the CC-BY license. Use policyThe full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. ABSTRACTGeochemical characteristics in subsurface fluid systems provide a wealth of information about fluid sources, migration, and storage conditions. Determining the extent of fluid interaction (aquifer-hydrocarbon connectivity) is important for oil and gas production and waste storage applications, but is not tractable using traditional seismic methods. Furthermore, the residence time of fluids is critical in such systems and can vary from tens of thousands to billions of years. Our understanding of the transport length scales in multiphase systems, while equally important, is more limited. Noble gas data from the Rotliegend natural gas field, northern Germany, are used here to determine the length scale and isolation age of the combined water-gas system. We show that geologically bound volume estimates (i.e., gas to water volume ratios) match closed-system noble gas model predictions, suggesting that the Rotliegend system has remained isolated as a closed system since hydrocarbon formation. Radiogenic helium data show that fluid isolation occurred 63-129 m.y. after rock and/or groundwater deposition (ca. 300 Ma), which is consistent with known hydrocarbon generation from 250 to 140 Ma, thus corroborating long-term geologic isolation. It is critical that we have the ability to distinguish between fluid systems that, despite phase separation, have remained closed to fluid loss from those that have lost oil or gas phases. These findings are the first to demonstrate that such systems remain isolated and fully gas retentive on time scales >100 m.y. over >10 km length scales, and have broad implications for saline aquifer CO 2 disposal site viability and hydrocarbon resource prediction, which both require an understanding of the length and time scales of crustal fluid transport pathways.

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“…Samples for dissolved noble gas analyses ( He, 20 Ne) were collected in copper tubes (Aeschbach-Hertig and Solomon, 2012;Beyerle et al, 2000) and analyzed by mass spectrometry at the University of Bremen in Germany (Sültenfub et al, 2009). The analytical error is typically better than 1% for the noble gas concentrations and better than 0.5% for the He isotopic ratio.…”

Section: Sampling and Analytical Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using environmental tracers to determine the relative importance of travel times in the unsaturated and saturated zones for the delay of nitrate reduction measures

Gerber

Purtschert

Hunkeler

et al. 2018

Journal of Hydrology

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a b s t r a c tGroundwater quality in many regions with intense agriculture has deteriorated due to the leaching of nitrate and other agricultural pollutants. Modified agricultural practices can reduce the input of nitrate to groundwater bodies, but it is crucial to determine the time span over which these measures become effective at reducing nitrate levels in pumping wells. Such estimates can be obtained from hydrogeological modeling or lumped-parameter models (LPM) in combination with environmental tracer data. Two challenges in such tracer-based estimates are (i) accounting for the different modes of transport in the unsaturated zone (USZ), and (ii) assessing uncertainties. Here we extend a recently published Bayesian inference scheme for simple LPMs to include an explicit USZ model and apply it to the Dünnerngäu aquifer, Switzerland. Compared to a previous estimate of travel times in the aquifer based on a 2D hydrogeological model, our approach provides a more accurate assessment of the dynamics of nitrate concentrations in the aquifer. We find that including tracer measurements ( He) reduces uncertainty in nitrate predictions if nitrate time series at wells are not available or short, but does not necessarily lead to better predictions if long nitrate time series are available. Additionally, the combination of tracer data with nitrate time series allows for a separation of the travel times in the unsaturated and saturated zone.

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Noble Gas Thermometry in Groundwater Hydrology

Cited by 79 publications

References 140 publications

Insight into chemical, biological, and physical processes in coastal waters from dissolved oxygen and inert gas tracers

Insight into chemical, biological, and physical processes in coastal waters from dissolved oxygen and inert gas tracers

Determining fluid migration and isolation times in multiphase crustal domains using noble gases

Using environmental tracers to determine the relative importance of travel times in the unsaturated and saturated zones for the delay of nitrate reduction measures

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