Environmental isotopes in a study of the origin of salinity of groundwater in the Mexicali Valley

The geochemistry and isotope hydrology of the Southern Mexicali Valley in the area of the Cerro Prieto, Baja California (Mexico) geothermal field

“…Therefore are the best estimation of the water originated of Colorado River, which also they are located at almost the whole area studied. The average stable isotope composition of this group is dDZK112G3 ‰ and d 18 OZ K14.4G0.09‰, which is very similar to that found by Payne et al (1979) who defined it as old Colorado River water.…”

“…The Valley has a complex network of water channels for agricultural use; which is fed by Colorado River water from the Presa Morelos dam; as well as by groundwater from drilled wells. Water infiltration from these sources represents the main recharge of groundwater (Makdisi et al, 1982;Payne et al, 1979). Besides the low rainfall, there are other less important recharge sources such as: contributions from the Gila River, entrapped sea water and rain water (Makdisi et al, 1982).…”

“…8); which includes data for groundwater collected in this study and for surface samples reported by Payne et al (1979) and Ramírez (1997). In order to present the wide range in chloride concentration a semi-logarithmic diagram was used.…”

“…Previous geochemical and isotopical studies of MV groundwaters have been carried out by Palacios-Vélez et al (1978), Payne et al (1979) and Makdisi et al (1982). However, although these studies have included several zones of the MV, none has been focussed on the phreatic aquifer of the Cerro Prieto geothermal field.…”

Hydrochemical and isotopical tracers in the lacustrine aquifer of the Cerro Prieto area, Baja California, México

“…Therefore, this is one of the several processes that increases the concentration of dissolved salts in the alluvial aquifer (Portugal et al, 2005). Water infiltration from Colorado River represents the main recharge Valley groundwater (Payne et al, 1979). Groundwater circulation of the alluvium aquifer is characterised by a general flow from east to west as indicated by potentiometric surface drawn in Fig.…”