Using multivariate statistical analysis of groundwater major cation and trace element concentrations to evaluate groundwater flow in a regional aquifer
✍ Scribed by Klaus J. Stetzenbach; Irene M. Farnham; Vernon F. Hodge; Kevin H. Johannesson
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1999
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 367 KB
- Volume
- 13
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0885-6087
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Groundwater samples were collected from 11 springs in Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge in southern Nevada and seven springs from Death Valley National Park in eastern California. Concentrations of the major cations (Ca, Mg, Na and K) and 45 trace elements were determined in these groundwater samples. The resultant data were subjected to evaluation via the multivariate statistical technique principal components analysis (PCA), to investigate the chemical relationships between the Ash Meadows and Death Valley spring waters, to evaluate whether the results of the PCA support those of previous hydrogeological and isotopic studies and to determine if PCA can be used to help delineate potential groundwater ¯ow patterns based on the chemical compositions of groundwaters. The results of the PCA indicated that groundwaters from the regional Paleozoic carbonate aquifers (all of the Ash Meadows springs and four springs from the Furnace Creek region of Death Valley) exhibited strong statistical associations, whereas other Death Valley groundwaters were chemically dierent. The results of the PCA support earlier studies, where potentiometric head levels, d 18 O and dD, geological relationships and rare earth element data were used to evaluate groundwater ¯ow, which suggest groundwater ¯ows from Ash Meadows to the Furnace Creek springs in Death Valley. The PCA suggests that Furnace Creek groundwaters are moderately concentrated Ash Meadows groundwater, re¯ecting longer aquifer residence times for the Furnace Creek groundwaters. Moreover, PCA indicates that groundwater may ¯ow from springs in the region surrounding Scotty's Castle in Death Valley National Park, to a spring discharging on the valley ¯oor. The study indicates that PCA may provide rapid and relatively cost-eective methods to assess possible groundwater ¯ow regimes in systems that have not been previously investigated.