Assessing groundwater residence time in a highly anthropized unconfined aquifer using bomb peak 14C and reconstructed irrigation water 3H

Radiocarbon decay is rarely used to assess the residence time of modern groundwater due to the low resolution of its long half-life in comparison to the expected range of ages. Nonetheless, the modern 14C peak induced by the nuclear bomb tests traces efficiently the impacts of recent human activities on groundwater recharge, as well as for tritium. A simple lumped parameter model (LPM) was implemented in order to assess the interest of 14C and 3H nuclear peaks in a highly anthropized aquifer system of southeastern Spain under intense agricultural development. It required i) to assess a correction factor for modern 14C activities and ii) to reconstruct the 3H recharge input function, affected by irrigation. In such a complex hydrogeological context, an exponential model did not provide satisfying results for all samples. A better solution was reached by taking into account the qualitative recent variation of the recharge rates into a combined exponential flow and piston flow model. Apart from presenting an uncommon approach for 14C dating of modern groundwater, this study highlights the need of considering not only the variation of the tracer but also the variability of recharge rates in LPMs.

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Baudron P. Barbecot F. Gillon M. García Aróstegui J.L. Travi Y. Leduc C. Gomariz Castillo F. y Martínez Vicente D. Assessing groundwater residence time in a highly anthropized unconfined aquifer using bomb peak 14C and reconstructed irrigation water 3H. Universidad de Murcia, 2013. https://doi.org/10.2458/azu_js_rc.55.16396

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Resource type Article
Date of creation 2024-11-05
Date of last revision 2025-01-22
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Metadata identifier 6c266db4-e4e3-58e0-8b01-322ef4cfd97b
Metadata language Spanish
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High-value dataset category Earth observation and environment
ISO 19115 topic category biota
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Name of the dataset creator Baudron, P., Barbecot, F., Gillon, M., García Aróstegui, J.L., Travi, Y., Leduc, C., Gomariz Castillo, F. y Martínez Vicente, D.
Name of the dataset editor Universidad de Murcia
Other identifier DOI: 10.2458/azu_js_rc.55.16396
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Email of the dataset creator paul.baudron@baudron.com
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