Abstract
ABSTRACT Knowledge of mechanism controlling the hydrochemistry of groundwater are crucial requirement to understand the hydrochemical evolution and evaluate the water quality of subsurficial water resources. Thus, to understand the process governing the hydrochemistry variability and flow dynamics of the Parecis and Ronuro Aquifers, the use of statistical analysis and isotopic characterization were combined. In the correlation matrix it was found that the highest correlation coefficient was observed for HCO3-, Ca2+, Mg2+, Sr2+, SO42-, and F-, which suggested that these parameters are derived from the same source, most likely from rock–water interactions. Additionally, we noticed moderate to high correlation among NO3-, Cl-, Na+, K+, and Ba2+, which collectively are indicative of domestic sewage contamination. Finally, a principal component analysis (PCA) identified that the most variance in hydrochemistry from the evaluated samples was controlled by HCO3-, Ca2+ and Mg2+, which is associated with rock–water interaction. Regarding the 18O and 2H isotope values, it could be observed that the aquifer recharges were of meteoric origin and that the Ronuro Aquifer samples were more enriched than the PAS samples. This work reinforces the capability of multivariate statistics to discern the main process that controls the variability of groundwater hydrochemistry.
Highlights
Groundwater constitutes the main source of water for drinking, irrigation, and industrial purposes in numerous regions around the world, especially in those regions where the surface water is scarce (e.g., Kemper, 2004; Robins & Fergusson, 2014)
We evaluated the combined use of multivariate statistics of hydrochemistry data and interpretation of the stable isotopic analysis of groundwater to discern the main process controlling the hydrochemistry of groundwater and characterize the dynamics of groundwater flux
The highest correlation coefficient was observed among the anions HCO3, Ca2+, Mg2+Sr2+, SO42, and F- and the cations NO3, Cl, Na+, K+, and Ba2+
Summary
Groundwater constitutes the main source of water for drinking, irrigation, and industrial purposes in numerous regions around the world, especially in those regions where the surface water is scarce (e.g., Kemper, 2004; Robins & Fergusson, 2014). The scarcity of groundwater is a problem that is intrinsically attributed to both quantity and quality factors. While the quantity factors include the volume of groundwater stored in the aquifers (Kemper, 2004), the quality is influenced by natural and anthropogenic processes, which is a key factor that may impact human health or end-use purposes (Singh et al, 2006). The mechanisms controlling the hydrochemical characteristics of groundwater cover a large variety of processes. Due to the complexity and overlap of the processes controlling the hydrochemistry of groundwater, different approaches have been proposed to understand the hydrochemistry variability of groundwater, such as multivariate statistics and geochemical simulation
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