Publication Date
5-2020
Abstract
Karst terrains contain very productive aquifers. The hydraulic and hydrogeological characteristics of karst aquifers make these systems capable of storing and transporting large amounts of water, but also highly vulnerable to contamination. Their extremely heterogeneous nature prevents accurate prediction of contaminant fate and transport. Even more challenging is to understand the impact of hydrologic condition changes on fate and transport processes. This study aims at characterizing changes in transport processes in the karst groundwater system of northern Puerto Rico under different hydrologic conditions. The study involves injecting rhodamine wt and uranine tracers into a spring cave, and monitoring concentrations at different points along the cave during different rainfall conditions. Results show that transport processes of solutes in eogenetic karst with temporal rainfall patterns affect the hydrogeologic flow regime. Preliminary results suggest significant differences in fate and transport characteristics under different hydrologic conditions.
Rights Information
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.5038/9781733375313.1051
Characterizing transport properties in karst conduits under different hydrologic conditions
Karst terrains contain very productive aquifers. The hydraulic and hydrogeological characteristics of karst aquifers make these systems capable of storing and transporting large amounts of water, but also highly vulnerable to contamination. Their extremely heterogeneous nature prevents accurate prediction of contaminant fate and transport. Even more challenging is to understand the impact of hydrologic condition changes on fate and transport processes. This study aims at characterizing changes in transport processes in the karst groundwater system of northern Puerto Rico under different hydrologic conditions. The study involves injecting rhodamine wt and uranine tracers into a spring cave, and monitoring concentrations at different points along the cave during different rainfall conditions. Results show that transport processes of solutes in eogenetic karst with temporal rainfall patterns affect the hydrogeologic flow regime. Preliminary results suggest significant differences in fate and transport characteristics under different hydrologic conditions.
