The role of atmospheric conditions in CO2 and radon emissions from an abandoned water well

Levintal, Elad; Dragila, M. I.; Zafrir, Hovav; Weisbrod, Noam

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.137857

Cited by 20 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…The effect of atmospheric conditions, namely atmospheric pressure and temperature, on air, CO 2 , and Rn-222 transport across the borehole-ambient atmosphere interface, was investigating inside a 110 m deep by 1 m diameter borehole in northern Israel. The air exchange rate of these features was analyzed and, consequently their contribution as sources for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to the atmosphere was quantified (Levintal et al, 2020).…”

Section: Phase VImentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Black arrow in (A) denotes the time interval between the minimum decrease value of CO 2 (dCO 2 /dt) at −5 and −70 m, from which V air was quantified. Red area represents the 95% confidence range according to the calculated linear regression (black line) (Levintal et al, 2020 external temperature during the day, the barometric pressure is decreasing accordingly, and the barometric pumping is getting stronger. Then, more radon is measured by the alpha detectors at a depth of 40 m (Figure 9A).…”

Section: Phase V: Differentiating Between Radon Anomalies Produced By Climatic Constituent and Pre Seismic Tectonic Activitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Quantitative computing the air exchange rate between these features is therefore very relevant, as these are potential sources for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to the atmosphere. The influence of atmospheric conditions, including barometric pressure and ambient temperature, on the air, CO 2 , and radon transport across the borehole-ambient atmosphere interface and groundwater-borehole bottom interface is studied based on measurements inside a 110 m deep by 1 m diameter borehole in Sde-Eliezer site in northern Israel (Levintal et al, 2020).…”

Section: Phase Vi: Co 2 and Rn-222 Emissions From An Abandoned Water Well Under The Influence Of Climatic Pressure And Temperaturementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Improving the sampling rate by 30 times (from 15 min to high 30 s resolution) and implementing four CO 2 detectors at different depths enabled measuring the CO 2 velocity in the Sde-Eliezer borehole under the influence of barometric pressure that seems to be more effective than temperature within the air space inside the open well (Levintal et al, 2020).…”

Section: Radon Co 2 and Other Natural Gas In Depth As A Proxy For Investigating Tectonic Pre-seismic Activitymentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Impact of Atmospheric and Tectonic Constraints on Radon-222 and Carbon Dioxide Flow in Geological Porous Media - A Dozen-Year Research Summary

et al. 2020

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Long-term monitoring of Rn-222 and CO 2 at a depth of several dozen meter at the Sde-Eliezer site, located within one of the Dead Sea Fault Zone segments in northern Israel, has led to the discovery of the clear phenomenon that both gases are affected by underground tectonic activity along the Dead Sea Fault Zone. It may relate to pre-seismic processes associated with the accumulation and relaxation of lithospheric stress and strain producing earthquakes. This approach assumes that meteorological influences on physico-chemical parameters are limited at depth since its strength diminishes with the increase of the overlay layer thickness. Hence, the monitoring of natural gases in deep boreholes above the water table enables to reduce the climatic-induced periodic contributions, and thus to identify the specific portion of the radon signals that could be related to regional tectonic pre-seismic activity. The plausible pre-seismic local movement of the two gases at depthis identified by the appearance of discrete, random, non-cyclical signals, wider in time duration than 20 h and clearly wider than the sum of the width of the periodic diurnal and semidiurnal signals driven by ambient meteorological parameters. These non-cyclical signals may precede, by one day or more, a forthcoming seismic event. Hence, it is plausible to conclude that monitoring of any other natural gas that is present at depth may show a similar broadening signal and may serve as a precursor too. The necessary technical conditions enabling to distinguish between anomalous signals of gases that may be induced locally by pre-seismic processes at depth, and the relatively low periodic signals that are still established at depth related to external climatic conditions, are presented in detail.

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Section: Phase VImentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Phase V: Differentiating Between Radon Anomalies Produced By Climatic Constituent and Pre Seismic Tectonic Activitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Phase Vi: Co 2 and Rn-222 Emissions From An Abandoned Water Well Under The Influence Of Climatic Pressure And Temperaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Radon Co 2 and Other Natural Gas In Depth As A Proxy For Investigating Tectonic Pre-seismic Activitymentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Impact of Atmospheric and Tectonic Constraints on Radon-222 and Carbon Dioxide Flow in Geological Porous Media - A Dozen-Year Research Summary

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“…The contribution to gas exchange from near‐surface cavities is herein explored. Air transport through conduits (boreholes, shafts, and wells) is known to provide natural aeration of quarries or tunnels (Perrier & Le Mouël, 2016), change relative humidity (RH; see supporting information for acronym table) and impact carbon fluxes in karst systems (Auvray et al, 2008), enhance evaporation from lower water tables, impact the stability of carbon capture and storage processes (Haugan & Joos, 2004; Levintal, Lensky, et al, 2018), increase emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from contaminated soils (Boothroyd et al, 2016; Ronen et al, 2010), and drive emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) from open oil and water boreholes (Kang et al, 2014; Levintal et al, 2020; Levintal, Dragila, et al, 2018). Although diffusion drives gas transport through all cavities to some degree, for apertures greater than the scale of several cm, gas fluxes are strongly impacted by contributions from three advective mechanisms: barometric pumping (BP), thermal‐induced convection (TIC), and wind‐induced convection.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Borehole Diameter Controls Thermal‐Induced Convection and Evaporation From a Shallow Water Table

Levintal

Dragila

Lensky

et al. 2020

Geophysical Research Letters

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Understanding air exchange via boreholes, shafts, and wells is important for Earth and environmental sciences because of their potential role for increased evaporation and greenhouse gas emissions. Here, we investigated the effect of atmospheric temperature variability on air transport via a borehole as a function of its diameter. Field experiment included five boreholes with diameters ranging from 0.10 to 0.38 m and a depth of 3 m with an artificial water table at −2.7 m. Temperature was recorded in each borehole at 1-min intervals for 1 year. Diurnal and seasonal air temperature changes triggered thermal instability, mainly during winter nights, which initiated thermal-induced convection within the boreholes. The thermal-induced convection penetrated deeper into the borehole as the diameter increased, doubling the water table evaporation rate for the largest borehole relative to the smallest. Borehole diameter plays an important role in controlling air exchange rates between the subsurface and the atmosphere. Plain Language Summary The Earth's surface is dotted with different types of boreholes and shafts with varying diameters and depths, which act like "straws" penetrating the Earth's subsurface whereby different types of gases can be emitted into the atmosphere from subsurface layers that were previously unexposed. To be able to calculate the quantities and rates of gas exchange, it is therefore important to understand the gas transport mechanisms within these "straws." In this study, we examined water vapor loss from a shallow water table using field measurements from five different human-made boreholes (3 m in depth). High-resolution temperature profiles and evaporation rates from the water table located 30 cm above the bottom of each borehole were used to explore gas transport. We show the importance of thermal-induced convection as a major air transport mechanism and its dependence on both borehole diameter and atmospheric conditions. The mechanism of thermally induced convection is similar to what controls cloud formation, in which warm (light) air moves upward to replace the cold (heavy) air above it. We found that the air transfer rate increases as borehole diameter increases and that boreholes emit more gas into the atmosphere, and at a higher rate, during winter than during summer.

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A differential CO₂ profile probe approach for field measurements of soil gas transport and soil respiration^#

Osterholt

Kolbe

Maier

2022

J. Plant Nutr. Soil Sci.

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Background: Gas exchange between soil and atmosphere is of great importance for greenhouse gas cycles. As gas transport in soil is generally dominated by diffusion, the soil gas diffusion coefficient (D S ) is crucial to understand fluxes between soil and atmosphere.Estimating D S is still a great source of uncertainty when calculating soil gas fluxes such as soil respiration from soil gas profiles. In situ measurement of the effective exchange coefficient (D eff ) not only reduces this uncertainty, but also allows to quantify non-diffusive transport processes in addition to the purely diffusive exchange (D S ), which cannot be investigated by laboratory measurements or the application of soil gas diffusivity models.Even though several methods for in situ D eff measurement exist, they often lack in the temporal resolution to identify short-term effects on D eff or require laborious set-ups, which makes them unsuitable for a fast and mobile application.Aims: Our objective was to test an improved profile probe for model-based soil gas flux analyses that allows in situ monitoring of (1) soil CO 2 profiles with high temporal resolution, (2) soil gas transport coefficients, including non-diffusive transport processes, (3) soil-atmosphere CO 2 flux, and (4) soil respiration profiles. Methods:We developed a CO 2 profile probe with build-in sensors that can easily be installed in soil to gain continuous CO 2 concentration profiles. The probe includes the option to inject CO 2 as a tracer gas to estimate D eff . To account for changes in natural CO 2 concentrations in the soil, we tested two approaches: firstly, a differential approach using two probes, an injection probe and a reference probe, and secondly, a stand-alone approach in which changes in natural CO 2 concentrations are estimated by a statistical model using its main environmental drivers. The resulting tracer gas profiles were used to fit a finite element gas diffusion model to derive D eff . Using the derived D eff values and the CO 2 profiles allowed calculating CO 2 fluxes. The approach was tested with controlled laboratory experiments using different mineral substrates to compare the diffusivity estimates of the in situ method with laboratory measurements on soil cores. Additional laboratory experiments included artificial CO 2 sources to simulate soil respiration in order to evaluate the gradient-based estimation of soil respiration profiles. In a second step, both approaches were tested under natural conditions in the field.

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The role of atmospheric conditions in CO2 and radon emissions from an abandoned water well

Cited by 20 publications

References 55 publications

The Impact of Atmospheric and Tectonic Constraints on Radon-222 and Carbon Dioxide Flow in Geological Porous Media - A Dozen-Year Research Summary

The Impact of Atmospheric and Tectonic Constraints on Radon-222 and Carbon Dioxide Flow in Geological Porous Media - A Dozen-Year Research Summary

Borehole Diameter Controls Thermal‐Induced Convection and Evaporation From a Shallow Water Table

A differential CO₂ profile probe approach for field measurements of soil gas transport and soil respiration^#

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The role of atmospheric conditions in CO2 and radon emissions from an abandoned water well

Cited by 20 publications

References 55 publications

The Impact of Atmospheric and Tectonic Constraints on Radon-222 and Carbon Dioxide Flow in Geological Porous Media - A Dozen-Year Research Summary

The Impact of Atmospheric and Tectonic Constraints on Radon-222 and Carbon Dioxide Flow in Geological Porous Media - A Dozen-Year Research Summary

Borehole Diameter Controls Thermal‐Induced Convection and Evaporation From a Shallow Water Table

A differential CO2 profile probe approach for field measurements of soil gas transport and soil respiration#

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About

A differential CO₂ profile probe approach for field measurements of soil gas transport and soil respiration^#