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Assessing Groundwater Residence Time in a Highly Anthropized Unconfined Aquifer Using Bomb Peak 14C and Reconstructed Irrigation Water 3H

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 February 2016

Paul Baudron ,
Florent Barbecot ,
Marina Gillon ,
José Luis García Aróstegui ,
Yves Travi ,
Christian Leduc ,
Francisco Gomariz Castillo  and
David Martinez-Vicente
Paul Baudron*
Affiliation:
Fundación Instituto Euromediterráneo del Agua, Murcia, Spain Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, UMR G-EAU, Montpellier, France Université Paris Sud, UMR CNRS-UPS 8148 IDES, Orsay, France
Florent Barbecot
Affiliation:
GEOTOP-UQAM, Département des Sciences de la Terre et de l'Atmosphère, Montréal, Québec, Canada
Marina Gillon
Affiliation:
Université Avignon Pays de Vaucluse, UMR1114 EMMAH, Avignon, France
José Luis García Aróstegui
Affiliation:
Instituto Geológico y Minero de España, Murcia, Spain
Yves Travi
Affiliation:
Université Avignon Pays de Vaucluse, UMR1114 EMMAH, Avignon, France
Christian Leduc
Affiliation:
Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, UMR G-EAU, Montpellier, France
Francisco Gomariz Castillo
Affiliation:
Fundación Instituto Euromediterráneo del Agua, Murcia, Spain Universidad de Alicante, Departamento de Ciencias Marinas y Biología Aplicada, Alicante, Spain
David Martinez-Vicente
Affiliation:
Fundación Instituto Euromediterráneo del Agua, Murcia, Spain Universidad de Murcia, Instituto Universitario del Agua y del Medio Ambiente, Murcia, Spain
*
Corresponding author. Email: paul.baudron@baudron.com.
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Abstract

Radiocarbon decay is rarely used to assess the residence time of modern groundwater due to the low resolution of its long half-life in comparison to the expected range of ages. Nonetheless, the modern 14C peak induced by the nuclear bomb tests traces efficiently the impacts of recent human activities on groundwater recharge, as well as for tritium. A simple lumped parameter model (LPM) was implemented in order to assess the interest of 14C and 3H nuclear peaks in a highly anthropized aquifer system of southeastern Spain under intense agricultural development. It required i) to assess a correction factor for modern 14C activities and ii) to reconstruct the 3H recharge input function, affected by irrigation. In such a complex hydrogeological context, an exponential model did not provide satisfying results for all samples. A better solution was reached by taking into account the qualitative recent variation of the recharge rates into a combined exponential flow and piston flow model. Apart from presenting an uncommon approach for 14C dating of modern groundwater, this study highlights the need of considering not only the variation of the tracer but also the variability of recharge rates in LPMs.

Type
Articles
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 55 , Issue 2: Proceedings of the 21st International Radiocarbon Conference (Part 1 of 2) , 2013 , pp. 993 - 1006
Copyright
Copyright © 2013 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

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