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Methane content and isotopic composition of shallow groundwater: implications for environmental monitoring related to shale gas exploitation

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Abstract

The baseline methane for shallow groundwater can provide an important evidence to interpret possible methane stray associated with shale gas exploration. This study investigated and traced methane content and its origin of shallow groundwater in a karst aquifer in the Fuling shale gas block, SW China. The results show that methane contents of shallow groundwater are all less than 0.01 mg L−1 and volumetric content in dissolved gas ranges from not detected to 0.0064%. The δ13C-CH4 ranges from −74.4 to −49.1‰, suggesting biogenic origin. For the first time, the δ13C-CH4 and 3He/4He end-numbers were determined.

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the “Strategic Priority Research Program (B)” of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant XDB10030603) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant 41672254).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Shale Gas and Geoengineering, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 19 Beituchengxi Road, Beijing, 100029, China

    Tianming Huang, Zhonghe Pang, Jiao Tian, Yiman Li & Shuo Yang

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 19A Yuquan Road, Beijing, 100049, China

    Tianming Huang, Zhonghe Pang, Jiao Tian, Yiman Li & Shuo Yang

  3. SINOPEC Star Petroleum Co., Ltd, 263 North Fourth Ring Road, Beijing, 100083, China

    Lu Luo

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  1. Tianming Huang
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  2. Zhonghe Pang
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  3. Jiao Tian
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  4. Yiman Li
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  5. Shuo Yang
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  6. Lu Luo
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Correspondence to Tianming Huang.

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Huang, T., Pang, Z., Tian, J. et al. Methane content and isotopic composition of shallow groundwater: implications for environmental monitoring related to shale gas exploitation. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 312, 577–585 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-017-5243-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-017-5243-9

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