Noble gases reveal the complex groundwater mixing pattern and origin of salinization in the Azraq Oasis, Jordan

Abstract

Azraq Oasis in the eastern Jordanian desert is an important freshwater resource of the country. Shallow groundwater reserves are heavily exploited since the 1980s and in consequence the groundwater table dropped significantly. Furthermore, some wells of the major well field drilled into the shallow aquifer show an increasing mineralization over the past 20 years. A previous study using conventional tracers did not result in a satisfactory explanation, from where the salt originates and why only a few wells are affected. In this study, the application of dissolved noble gases in combination with other tracer methods reveals a complex mixing pattern leading to the very localized salinization within the well field. It is found that primarily the wells affected by salinization 1) contain distinctly more radiogenic 4He than the other wells, indicating higher groundwater age, and 2) exhibit 3He/4He ratios that argue for an imprint of deep fluids from the Earth's mantle.However, the saline middle aquifer below is virtually free of mantle helium, which infers an upstream from an even deeper source through a nearby conductive fault. The local restriction of the salinization process is explained by the wide range of permeabilities of the involved geologic units. As the wells abstract water from the whole depth profile, they initially pump water mainly from the well conductive top rock layer. As the groundwater table dropped, this layer fell progressively dry and, depending on the local conductivity profile, some wells began to incorporate more water from the deeper part of the shallow aquifer into the discharge. These are the wells affected by salinization, because according to the presented scheme the deep part of the shallow aquifer is enriched in both salt and mantle fluids.