Environmental Tritium as a Tracer of Ground-Water Flow in the Piedmont Province of Georgia

摘要

The primary objective of this investigation was to acquire and then interpret what is believed to be the first set of environmental isotopic data relevant to the movement of ground water within the Piedmont Province of Georgia. Specifically, the goal of the study was to determine whether ambient tritium concentrations can be used to estimate the residence time of ground water within the shallow subsurface and also within deeper fractured crystalline (metamorphic) rock bedrock aquifers. A better understanding of the residence time with respect to different parts of the saprolite-fractured rock flow system would be useful in better constraining water budgets and the rate of subsurface contaminant movement within the hydrological environment. Finally, studies such as this can provide useful field data for a better general understanding of ground-water flow within fractured rocks. Environmental tritium refers to ambient tritium concentrations present within natural water samples, as opposed to some input of tritium consciously released and monitored by hydrologists as a tracer or tritium accidentally released to the environment from a nuclear reactor or other such faciity.