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USE OF TRACERS TO QUANTIFY SUBSURFACE FLOW THROUGH A MINING PIT
Three independent tracer experiments were conducted to quantify the through‐flow of water from Herman Pit, an abandoned mercury (Hg) mine pit adjacent to Clear Lake, California, USA. The tracers used were Rhodamine‐WT, sulfur hexafluoride, and a mixture of sulfur hexafluoride and neon‐22. The tracers were injected into Herman Pit, a generally well‐mixed water body of ∼81 000 m2, and the concentrations were monitored in the mine pit, observation wells, and the lake for 2–3 months following each injection. The results for all three experiments showed that the tracer arrived at certain observation wells within days of injection. Comparing all the well data showed a highly heterogeneous response, with a small number of wells showing this near‐instantaneous response and others taking months before the tracer was detectable. Tracer was also found in the lake on four occasions over a one‐month period, too few to infer any pattern but sufficient to confirm the connection of the two water bodies. Using a simple mass balance model it was possible to determine the effective loss rate through advection for each of the tracers and with this to estimate the through‐flow rate. The through‐flow rate for all three experiments was ∼630 L/s, at least 1–2 orders of magnitude larger than previous estimates, all of which had been based on geochemical inferences or other indirect measures of the pit through‐flow.
USE OF TRACERS TO QUANTIFY SUBSURFACE FLOW THROUGH A MINING PIT
Three independent tracer experiments were conducted to quantify the through‐flow of water from Herman Pit, an abandoned mercury (Hg) mine pit adjacent to Clear Lake, California, USA. The tracers used were Rhodamine‐WT, sulfur hexafluoride, and a mixture of sulfur hexafluoride and neon‐22. The tracers were injected into Herman Pit, a generally well‐mixed water body of ∼81 000 m2, and the concentrations were monitored in the mine pit, observation wells, and the lake for 2–3 months following each injection. The results for all three experiments showed that the tracer arrived at certain observation wells within days of injection. Comparing all the well data showed a highly heterogeneous response, with a small number of wells showing this near‐instantaneous response and others taking months before the tracer was detectable. Tracer was also found in the lake on four occasions over a one‐month period, too few to infer any pattern but sufficient to confirm the connection of the two water bodies. Using a simple mass balance model it was possible to determine the effective loss rate through advection for each of the tracers and with this to estimate the through‐flow rate. The through‐flow rate for all three experiments was ∼630 L/s, at least 1–2 orders of magnitude larger than previous estimates, all of which had been based on geochemical inferences or other indirect measures of the pit through‐flow.
USE OF TRACERS TO QUANTIFY SUBSURFACE FLOW THROUGH A MINING PIT
Schladow, S. Geoffrey (author) / Clark, Jordan F. (author)
Ecological Applications ; 18 ; A55-A71
2008-12-01
17 pages
Article (Journal)
Electronic Resource
English
Flow Measurements with Fluorescent Tracers
| ASCE | 2021
Subsurface geology — Petroleum, mining construction
| Elsevier | 1978