Recent seawater intrusion into deep aquifer determined by the radioactive noble-gas isotopes 81Kr and 39Ar

Yechieli, Yoseph; Yokochi, Reika; Zilberbrand, Michael; Lu, Zheng -Tian; Purtschert, Roland; Sueltenfuss, Jürgen; Jiang, Wei; Zappala, Jake; Mueller, Peter; Bernier, Ryan; Avrahamov, Naama; Adar, Eilon; Talhami, Firas; Livshitz, Yakov; Burg, Avihu

doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2018.11.028

Recent seawater intrusion into deep aquifer determined by the radioactive noble-gas isotopes ⁸¹Kr and ³⁹Ar

Journal Article · Tue Dec 04 00:00:00 EST 2018 · Earth and Planetary Science Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2018.11.028· OSTI ID:1508351

Yechieli, Yoseph ^[1]; ^[2]; Zilberbrand, Michael ^[3]; Lu, Zheng -Tian ^[4]; Purtschert, Roland ^[5]; Sueltenfuss, Jürgen ^[6]; Jiang, Wei ^[4]; Zappala, Jake ^[7]; Mueller, Peter ^[8]; Bernier, Ryan ^[2]; Avrahamov, Naama ^[9]; Adar, Eilon ^[10]; Talhami, Firas ^[3]; Livshitz, Yakov ^[3]; Burg, Avihu ^[11]

Geological Survey of Israel, Jerusalem (Israel); Ben-Gurion Univ. (Israel)
The Univ. of Chicago, Chicago, IL (United States)
Hydrological Service, Jerusalem (Israel)
Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Univ. of Science and Technology of China, Anhui (China)
Univ. of Bern, Bern (Switzerland)
Univ. of Bremen, Bremen (Germany)
The Univ. of Chicago, Chicago, IL (United States); Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
Eastern R&D Center (Israel)
Ben-Gurion Univ. (Israel)
Geological Survey of Israel, Jerusalem (Israel)

Radioactive noble-gas isotopes tracers ⁸¹Kr and ³⁹Ar are used for the first time to measure the residence times of deep (~1000 m) saline coastal groundwater, and to determine its connection mode with the sea. The average rate of seawater intrusion into the deep aquifer in Israel, located near the Mediterranean Sea, is estimated. ⁸¹Kr-ages of the saline water samples, found to be younger than 40 ka, contradict previously estimated ages of up to several million years based on hydrogeological considerations. The new results imply a stronger and more recent connection between the aquifer and the sea, and indicate that the intrusion occurred during the sea-level rise that began about 20 ka ago. These coastal aquifers need to be managed with caution because lowering of the adjacent fresh water level due to over pumping could accelerate seawater intrusion in a relatively short time. As a result, this study demonstrates the suitability of these two noble-gas tracers for the examination of hydrogeological systems in general and for the study of seawater intrusion in particular.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Nuclear Physics (NP); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Nuclear Physics (NP) (SC-26)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-06CH11357

OSTI ID:: 1508351

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1635857

Journal Information:: Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Journal Name: Earth and Planetary Science Letters Journal Issue: C Vol. 507; ISSN 0012-821X

Publisher:: ElsevierCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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The Demographics of Water: A Review of Water Ages in the Critical Zone Sprenger, Matthias; Stumpp, Christine; Weiler, Markus Reviews of Geophysics, Vol. 57, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1029/2018rg000633	journal	July 2019
Behaviour of Tritium and Tritiogenic Helium in Freshwater Lens Groundwater Systems: Insights from Langeoog Island, Germany Post, Vincent E. A.; Houben, Georg J.; Stoeckl, Leonard Geofluids, Vol. 2019 https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/1494326	journal	October 2019
The Demographics of Water: A Review of Water Ages in the Critical Zone Sprenger, Matthias; Stumpp, Christine; Weiler, Markus ETH Zurich https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000374956	text	January 2019

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Related Subjects

39Ar
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
81Kr
groundwater dating
noble gases
radioactive isotopes
seawater intrusion