Stable water isotopes in pore water of Jurassic argillaceous rocks as tracers for solute transport over large spatial and temporal scales

Abstract

In order to characterize the large‐scale transport properties of the Opalinus Clay formation, the pore water isotope composition (δ18O and δ2H) was determined on samples from the deep borehole Benken (northeastern Switzerland) across Jurassic argillaceous rocks. The sequence of claystones and marls, delimited by two aquifers, is located at depth from about 400 to 700 m and exhibits very low hydraulic conductivities (below 10−13 m s−1). The isotope data of the pore water were obtained from core samples by diffusive vapor equilibration, vacuum distillation, and squeezing. Compared with the other methods, vacuum distillation led to too low values. To evaluate the large‐scale transport properties of the formation, we performed a series of advective‐dispersive model calculations and compared them with the experimental data. In accordance with the hydrogeological history, we varied initial and boundary conditions as well as model parameters. The main results can be summarized as follows: (1) Molecular diffusion to the underlying aquifer can explain the general features of the isotope profiles, (2) no signatures of advective flow could be detected, (3) the evolution time is of the order of 0.5–1 Ma (relying on laboratory diffusion coefficients) with a possible range of about 0.2–2 Ma, which is geologically plausible, and (4) parameters measured on small scales (centimeters or meters and months) are also plausible at the formation scale (tens of meters and millions of years) for the sediments investigated.