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Short high-accuracy tritium data time series for assessing groundwater mean transit times in the vadose and saturated zones of the Luxembourg Sandstone aquifer
| Content Provider | Scilit |
|---|---|
| Author | Gourdol, Laurent Stewart, Michael K. Morgenstern, Uwe Pfister, Laurent |
| Copyright Year | 2023 |
| Description | While in the southern Hemisphere a single water sample can be sufficient for tritium-based young groundwater dating, several tritium measurements spanning over multiple years are still needed in the northern Hemisphere. Although it is advised to focus tritium-based groundwater age dating on sites where long chronicles of tritium data are available, we tested in this study the potential for short high-accuracy tritium data series (~4 years) to date groundwater from 35 springs draining the Luxembourg Sandstone aquifer (Central Western Europe). We determined groundwater mean transit times by using the lumped parameter model approach in a Monte Carlo uncertainty estimation framework to provide uncertainty ranges inherent to the low number of tritium data at hand and their related analytical errors. Our results show that unambiguous groundwater mean transit time assessments cannot be determined solely based on such recent short tritium time series, given that several ranges of mean transit times appeared theoretically possible. Nonetheless we succeeded in discriminating groundwater mean transit times in the vadose and saturated zones of the aquifer through a stepwise decision process guided with several supplementary data. Our findings are consistent with both the tritium measurements of individual springs and the hydrogeological context of the study area. We have been able to improve our understanding of the water transit times in the Luxembourg Sandstone aquifer. We particularly highlighted a horizontal-vertical water velocity anisotropy in the Luxembourg Sandstone - a key feature that deserves to be explored further. |
| e-ISSN | 18122116 |
| DOI | 10.5194/hess-2023-152 |
| Journal | Hydrology and Earth System Sciences Discussions |
| Volume Number | 2023 |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Copernicus GmbH |
| Publisher Date | 2023-06-20 |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Subject Keyword | Saturated Zones Vadose and Saturated Tritium Measurements Transit Times Groundwater Mean Transit |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
| Subject | Earth and Planetary Sciences Earth-Surface Processes |
