Hydrogeologic and geochemical characterization of groundwater resources in Rush Valley, Tooele County, Utah

Gardner, Philip M.; Kirby, Stefan M.

doi:10.3133/sir20115068

Cited by 7 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…This is supported by R/R a values for 3 He: 4 He as low as 0.09. A well in the carbonate aquifer of Rush Valley (western Utah) with 4 He NUC of 1 × 10 −6 cm 3 STP/g and 14 C activity of 2.2 pmC yielded an apparent age of 20 to 30 ka (Gardner and Kirby ). Wells in the carbonate aquifer in the Snake Valley area of Utah and Nevada have 4 He NUC of 10 −6 to 10 −7 cm 3 STP/g, 14 C activities < 4 pmC, and corrected 14 C ages >10 ka (Phillip Gardner, U.S. Geological Survey, personal communication, 2011).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Innovative Environmental Tracer Techniques for Evaluating Sources of Spring Discharge from a Carbonate Aquifer Bisected by a River

2013

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Littlefield Springs discharge about 1.6 m³ /s along a 10-km reach of the Virgin River in northwestern Arizona. Understanding their source is important for salinity control in the Colorado River Basin. Environmental tracers suggest that Littlefield Springs are a mixture of older groundwater from the regional Great Basin carbonate aquifer and modern (post-1950s) seepage from the Virgin River. While corrected ¹⁴C apparent ages range from 1 to 9 ka, large amounts of nucleogenic ⁴He and low ³He/⁴He ratios suggest that the carbonate aquifer component is likely even older Pleistocene recharge. Modeled infiltration of precipitation, hydrogeologic cross sections, and hydraulic gradients all indicate recharge to the carbonate aquifer likely occurs in the Clover and Bull Valley Mountains along the northern part of the watershed, rather than in the nearby Virgin Mountains. This high-altitude recharge is supported by relatively cool noble-gas recharge temperatures and isotopically depleted δ²H and δ¹⁸O. Excess (crustal) SF₆ and ⁴He precluded dating of the modern component of water from Littlefield Springs using SF₆ and ³H/³He methods. Assuming a lumped-parameter model with a binary mixture of two piston-flow components, Cl⁻ /Br⁻, Cl⁻ /F⁻, δ²H, and CFCs indicate the mixture is about 60% Virgin River water and 40% groundwater from the carbonate aquifer, with an approximately 30-year groundwater travel time for Virgin River seepage to re-emerge at Littlefield Springs. This suggests that removal of high-salinity sources upstream of the Virgin River Gorge would reduce the salinity of water discharging from Littlefield Springs into the Virgin River within a few decades.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Innovative Environmental Tracer Techniques for Evaluating Sources of Spring Discharge from a Carbonate Aquifer Bisected by a River

2013

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“…Geologic mapping of the Ophir quadrangle continues a block of geologic mapping in the adjacent parts of Rush Valley including the Vernon, Vernon NE, Lofgreen, Faust, and Saint John quadrangles (see Kirby, 2010aKirby, , 2010bKirby, , 2010cKirby, , 2010d, and was completed in conjunction with a larger mapping project for the Rush Valley 30' x 60' quadrangle (Clark and others, 2009(Clark and others, , 2010(Clark and others, , and 2012) and a hydrogeologic framework study of the Rush Valley area (Gardner and Kirby, 2011). Geology was mapped directly on digital orthophotographs available from the Utah Automated Geographic Reference Center using ArcGIS, and then transferred to the 1993, 1:24,000-scale, Ophir topographic map base.…”

Section: Scope Of Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Everitt and Kaliser (1980), Barnhard and Dodge (1988), Wu and Bruhn (1994), Handwenger and others (1999), and URS Greiner Woodward Clyde (1999,2001) investigated the paleoseismology of the quadrangle and adjacent areas in Rush Valley. Hydrogeology of the Rush Valley area, including the Ophir quadrangle, is discussed by Hood and others (1969) and Gardner and Kirby (2011).…”

Section: Previous Investigations and Mapping Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Older basin fill, including the Salt Lake Formation(? ), underlies unconsolidated basin fill across much of the quadrangle (Everitt and Kaliser, 1980;Gardner and Kirby, 2011). Older basin fill includes a range of unconsolidated to semiconsolidated, generally fine-grained lacustrine and alluvial deposits that are well exposed to the south in the Vernon NE quadrangle (Kirby, 2010a).…”

Section: Geologic Summarymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Geologic map of the Ophir quadrangle, Tooele County, Utah

Kirby

2012

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Geophysical, isotopic, and hydrogeochemical tools to identify potential impacts on coastal groundwater resources from Urmia hypersaline Lake, NW Iran

Amiri

Nakhaei

Lak

et al. 2016

Environ Sci Pollut Res

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Measurements of major ions, trace elements, water-stable isotopes, and geophysical soundings were made to examine the interaction between Urmia Aquifer (UA) and Urmia Lake (UL), northwest Iran. The poor correlation between sampling depth and Cl(-) concentrations indicated that the position of freshwater-saltwater interface is not uniformly distributed in the study area, and this was attributed to aquifer heterogeneities. The targeted coastal wells showed B/Cl and Br/Cl molar ratios in the range of 0.0022-2.43 and 0.00032-0.28, respectively. The base-exchange index (BEI) and saturation index (SI) calculations showed that the salinization process followed by cation-exchange reactions mainly controls changes in the chemical composition of groundwater. All groundwater samples are depleted with respect to δ(18)O (-11.71 to -9.4 ‰) and δD (-66.26 to -48.41 ‰). The δ(18)O and δD isotope ratios for surface and groundwater had a similar range and showed high deuterium excess (d-excess) (21.11 to 31.16 ‰). The high d-excess in water samples is because of incoming vapors from the UL mixed with an evaporated moisture flux from the Urmia mainland and incoming vapors from the west (i.e., Mediterranean Sea). Some saline samples with low B/Cl and Br/Cl ratios had depleted δ(18)O and δD. In this case, due to freshwater flushing, the drilled wells in the coastal playas and salty sediments could have more depleted isotopes, more Cl(-), and consequently smaller B/Cl and Br/Cl ratios. Moreover, the results of hydrochemical facies evolution (HFE) diagram showed that because of the existence fine-grained sediments saturated with high density saltwater in the coastal areas that act as a natural barrier, increasing the groundwater exploitation leads to movement of freshwaters from recharge zones in the western mountains not saltwater from UL. The highly permeable sediments at the junction of the rivers to the lake are characterized by low hydraulic gradient and high hydraulic conductivity. These properties enhance the salinization of groundwater observed in the study area. The main factors influencing the salinity are base-exchange reactions, invasion of highly diluted saltwater, dissolution of salty pans, and water chemistry evolution along flow paths.

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Hydrogeologic and geochemical characterization of groundwater resources in Rush Valley, Tooele County, Utah

Cited by 7 publications

References 29 publications

Innovative Environmental Tracer Techniques for Evaluating Sources of Spring Discharge from a Carbonate Aquifer Bisected by a River

Innovative Environmental Tracer Techniques for Evaluating Sources of Spring Discharge from a Carbonate Aquifer Bisected by a River

Geologic map of the Ophir quadrangle, Tooele County, Utah

Geophysical, isotopic, and hydrogeochemical tools to identify potential impacts on coastal groundwater resources from Urmia hypersaline Lake, NW Iran

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