Study of shallow groundwater quality evolution under saline intrusion with environmental isotopes and geochemistry

Abstract

Evolution of the shallow groundwater quality under saline intrusion in porous aquifer system has been studied with environmental isotopes and geochemistry in the Laizhou Bay area, China. Two campaigns of water sampling from various sources were carried out in spring and winter for environmental isotopic and chemical analyses. The origin of groundwater salinity from intrusion of both modern seawater and deep brine water was identified by analysing the correlations between 18O, D, T, Cl−, SO 4 2− and electrical conductivity. The results indicate that the brine is originated from evaporating and concentrating of intruded seawater and its δD and δ18O are different from modern seawater but similar to those of mixture of seawater with fresh groundwater. It is hard to distinguish the salinity origin in this area by the δD–δ18O relationship alone. The relations between δ18O and conductivity, Cl− and SO 4 2− have been used to identify the salinity origin due to the distinct difference in salinity between the brine and seawater, conjunctively with use of T. A threshold of T = 12 TU was adopted to identify the origin of saline groundwater.