Identification of palaeo-seawater intrusion in groundwater using minor ions in a semi-confined aquifer of the Río de la Plata littoral (Argentina)

Abstract

The hydrochemistry of minor elements and traces such as bromide, lithium, strontium, uranium and selenium, together with the chemical analysis of major ions, has been used in the study of salinization process. This process occurs in a semi-confined aquifer that corresponds to a Pliocene–Pleistocene fluvial environment. The semi-confined aquifer is located in the littoral of the cities of Ensenada and Berisso, in the region of the middle Río de la Plata estuary, Argentina. Groundwater salinization was detected in the semi-confined aquifer in the coastal plain area, with salt contents that increase from the loess plain towards the river. The content of major ions that predominate in sea water (Cl−, Na+ and Mg2+), as well as the Cl−/Br− and U vs. Cl− ratios, demonstrates that such salinization is related to sea water, which shows no correspondence with estuary water. In the salinized area, Li, Sr and Se enrichments occur, and are used as tracers of the average time that a substance remains in solution in sea water in the aquifer. The study of such minor ions together with the geological evolution of the area made it possible to recognize that the salt water in the semi-confined aquifer corresponds to a palaeo-intrusion of sea water associated with the Pleistocene–Holocene ingressions caused by the climate changes occurring during the Quaternary.