Evaluation of the Relationship between Prevailing Redox Conditions and Methane Concentrations in Susquehanna County, NE Pennsylvania

摘要

Background/Objectives. Over the past two decades, numerous publications have shown that hydrocarbon degrading microorganisms are ubiquitous in the subsurface environment, and that in fact, approximately 85% of dissolved petroleum hydrocarbon plumes are at steady state conditions because of intrinsic bioremediation. Lessons learned from the expansive literature on the nature and effects of the biodegradation of petroleum hydrocarbons can be applied to improve our understanding of the microbially-driven degradation of methane and the associated changes in groundwater geochemistry. This talk will discuss the prevailing redox conditions naturally observed in groundwater in northeastern Pennsylvania, and how groundwater geochemistry may change as a result of a sudden influx of new methane.