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Use of single-well push–pull tracer tests to simulate a dynamic saltwater–freshwater interface

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Abstract

Two single-well injection–extraction (“push–pull”) tracer tests were performed in a groundwater monitoring well located in the Horonobe coastal sedimentary basin, Japan. The aim of the experiment was to investigate the in situ behavior of groundwater constituents when different mineralized fluids intrude into the aquifer (e.g., through a dynamic saltwater–freshwater interface). Artificially produced brackish water was used as the test fluid in the first experiment and deionized water in the second. Results from mixing models strongly suggest rapid mobilization and demobilization of ions within the aquifer as a reaction to the intruding fluids. Hydraulic modeling of the conservative chloride ions yielded effective porosities of about 1 %. These results show that the transport of ions is dependent on the composition and mineralization of the fluid. The refreshening of an aquifer leads to increased mobilization of ions and, in addition, to an increase of dispersivity due to clay swelling. This has consequences not only for dynamic saltwater–freshwater systems (aquifers in coastal areas and aquifer storage and recovery systems), but also for all systems in which chemically altered fluids come into contact within an aquifer (as, for example, can occur during geothermal heat/energy generation, or during CO2 storage).

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Mr. Masamitsu Yoshioka (Suncoh Consultant Inc.) and his team for their very helpful and straightforward technical support during the fieldwork. The authors would also like to thank the Horonobe Research Institute for the Subsurface Environment (HRISE), in particular Dr. Seiichiro Ioka (now Prof. at Hirosaki University) and Prof. Yoji Ishijima, for their logistical support and for valuable background information concerning the groundwater system of the Horonobe basin. The authors also would like to thank two anonymous reviewers for their useful comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hydrogeology Research Group, Department of Applied Geosciences, Technische Universität Berlin, BH 3-2, Ernst-Reuter-Platz 1, 10587, Berlin, Germany

    K. H. Hebig & T. Scheytt

  2. NEWJEC Inc., 1-12-13 Shin-Ohashi, Koto-ku, Tokyo, 135-0007, Japan

    N. Ito

  3. Institute of Fluid Mechanics and Environmental Physics in Civil Engineering, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Appelstraße 9a, 30167, Hannover, Germany

    J. Tecklenburg

  4. Geological Survey of Japan, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Chuo 7, 1-1-1 Higashi, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8567, Japan

    I. Machida & A. Marui

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  1. K. H. Hebig
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  2. N. Ito
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  3. J. Tecklenburg
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  4. I. Machida
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  5. A. Marui
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  6. T. Scheytt
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Correspondence to K. H. Hebig.

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Hebig, K.H., Ito, N., Tecklenburg, J. et al. Use of single-well push–pull tracer tests to simulate a dynamic saltwater–freshwater interface. Environ Earth Sci 75, 281 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-015-4999-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-015-4999-x

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