A Study of Acid Mine Drainage Using Earth Resistivity Measurements

Abstract

A resistivity survey was conducted in a reclaimed mine spoils disposal site near Wheatland, Indiana to study the ground‐water contamination. Due to the high conductivity of the acidic leachate from coal refuse, it was possible to detect the valleys in which this material was dumped (gob valleys) by using the horizontal resistivity profiling technique. The thickness of the gob valleys and information about the stratigraphy of the site were obtained by using the vertical electrical sounding (VES) technique. The VES data for sounding points located near monitoring wells, together with the chemical analyses of water samples taken from these wells, were used to obtain an empirical relationship between the inferred earth resistivity and the amount of Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) in the ground water. The horizontal resistivity profiling data and the VES data at a 30‐ft electrode spacing were contoured. The resulting isoresistivity map, together with the empirical relationship, can be used to predict the approximate TDS concentration at a depth of approximately 30 ft at any point on the Wheatland site.

Time-lapse resistivity investigation of salinity changes at an ex-promontory land: a case study of Carey Island, Selangor, Malaysia

“…For empirical relationship between geochemistry and geophysical information, geochemistry data from nine monitoring wells and resistivity measurements from nine transverse geo-electric data were used. Procedures for obtaining these relationships are described by Cartwright and McComas (1968), Ebraheem et al (1990), and Sherif et al (2006). Specific conductance of groundwater samples was converted into water resistivity (ρ w = 1/σ w ).…”

Monitoring Recycled Water Injection Into a Confined Aquifer in Sindos (Thessaloniki) Using Electrical Resistivity Tomography (Ert): Installation and Preliminary Results

“…The application of ERT has particularly wide use for environmental monitoring involving groundwater exploration, mapping and monitoring salt-water incursion in susceptible aquifers and transport processes of contaminants (LaBrecque 1989, Berryman and Kohn 1990, Ebraheem et al 1990, Daily et al 1992, Ramirez etat. 1993, Daily étal.…”

Using resistivity measurements for dam safety evaluation at Enemossen tailings dam in southern Sweden

“…This type of investigations has been conducted many times as regard to mine drainage (e.g. Abraheem et al 1990;Buselli and Lu 2001;Yuval and Oldenburg 1996). The technique is similar to the one used to detect leakage from landfills.…”