Impact of permafrost development on groundwater flow patterns: a numerical study considering freezing cycles on a two-dimensional vertical cut through a generic river-plain system

Abstract

International audienceThe impact of glaciation cycles on groundwater flow was studied within the framework of nuclear waste storage in underground geological formations. The eastern section of the Paris Basin (a layered aquifer with impervious/pervious alternations) in France was considered for the last 120 ka. Cold periods corresponded with arid climates. The issue of talik development below water bodies was addressed. These unfrozen zones can maintain open pathways for aquifer recharge. Transient thermal evolution was simulated on a small-scale generic unit of the landscape including a "river" and "plain". Coupled thermo-hydraulic modeling and simplified conductive heat transfer were considered for a broad range of scenarios. The results showed that when considering the current limited river dimensions and purely conductive heat transfer, taliks are expected to close within a few centuries. However, including coupled advection for flows from the river to the plain (probably pertinent for the eastern Paris Basin aquifer recharge zones) strongly delays talik closure (millennium scale). The impact on regional underground flows is expected to vary from a complete stop of recharge to a reduced recharge, corresponding to the talik zones. Consequences for future modeling approaches of the Paris Basin are discussed

Water and energy transfer modeling in a permafrost‐dominated, forested catchment of Central Siberia: The key role of rooting depth

“…Classical parameterizations are considered for the coefficients of these equations, and are described in details in Appendix S1. We use a Mualem–van Genuchten approach for the retention curve, the capillary capacity C H and the relative hydraulic conductivity with respect to saturation K rel and an empirical power law parameterization for relative hydraulic conductivity with respect to freezing of the porous medium, K freezing . Note that the primary variable of the considered generalized Richards equation (Equation ) is a pressure head h defined for the total water phase (liquid + ice). A similar approach is used by Guymon and Luthin and Weismüller et al .…”

“…It is now recognized as a hot topic in permafrost studies . As emphasized above, cryohydrogeological modeling is vital for biogeochemical studies of boreal areas, but there are many other potential fields of application of cryohydrogeological models, such as geotechnics, long‐term storage of nuclear waste, water resources in cold regions, thermal transfer around pipelines in cold regions, infrastructure stability and geothermics in cold regions …”

Three-phase numerical model for subsurface hydrology in permafrost-affected regions (PFLOTRAN-ICE v1.0)

“…Such models generally fall into two classes. One class focuses on groundwater systems at large scales with approximate treatment of active layer and intrapermafrost physics (e.g., McKenzie et al, 2007;Bense et al, 2009;Bosson et al, 2013;Vidstrand et al, 2013;Grenier et al, 2013;McKenzie and Voss, 2013). The second class includes more realistic descriptions of water dynamics in the active layer, including the effects of non-zero gas content (e.g., Painter, 2011;White, 1995).…”

Laboratory and Numerical Simulation of the Evolution of a River's Talik

“…() and Grenier et al . (). We only consider one‐dimensional (1D) (vertical) heat transfer for the present study.…”

“…Equation is solved within the framework of Cast3M using an implicit time scheme and the finite‐volume method for spatial discretisation (see also Grenier et al ., ). The non‐linearity is treated with a Picard's scheme combined with an adaptive under‐relaxation method to accelerate and stabilise the convergence.…”