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LARGE-SCALE NATURAL GRADIENT TRACER TEST IN SAND AND GRAVEL, CAPE COD, MASSACHUSETTS - 1. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN AND OBSERVED TRACER MOVEMENT
Citation:
LeBlanc, D. R., S. P. Garabedian, K. M. Hess, L. W. Gelhar, R. D. Quadri, K. G. Stollenwerk, AND W. W. Wood. LARGE-SCALE NATURAL GRADIENT TRACER TEST IN SAND AND GRAVEL, CAPE COD, MASSACHUSETTS - 1. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN AND OBSERVED TRACER MOVEMENT. WATER RESOURCES RESEARCH 27(5):895-910, (1991).
Impact/Purpose:
Published journal article
Description:
A large-scale natural gradient tracer experiment was conducted on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, to examine the transport and dispersion of solutes in a sand and gravel aquifer. The nonreactive tracer, bromide, and the reactive tracers, lithium and molybdate, were injected as a pulse in July 1985 and monitored in three dimensions as they moved as far as 280 m down-gradient through an array of multilevel samplers. The bromide cloud moved horizontally at a rate of 0.42 m per day. It also moved downward about 4 m because of density-induced sinking early in the test and accretion of areal recharge from precipitation. After 200 m of transport, the bromide cloud had spread more than 80 m in the direction of flow, but was only 14 m wide and 4–6 m thick. The lithium and molybdate clouds followed the same path as the bromide cloud, but their rates of movement were retarded about 50% relative to bromide movement because of sorption onto the sediments.
