A simple method for locating the fresh water-salt water interface using pressure data

Salt water intrusion is a key issue in dealing with exploitation, restoration, and management of fresh ground water in coastal aquifers. Constant monitoring of the fresh water-salt water interface is necessary for proper management of ground water resources. This study presents a simple method to estimate the depth of the fresh water-salt water interface in coastal aquifers using two sets of pressure data obtained from the fresh and saline zones within a single borehole. This method uses the density difference between fresh water and saline water and can practically be used at coastal aquifers that have a relatively sharp fresh water-salt water interface with a thin transition zone. The proposed method was applied to data collected from a coastal aquifer on Jeju Island, Korea, to estimate the variations in the depth of the interface. The interface varied with daily tidal fluctuations and heavy rainfall in the rainy season. The estimated depth of the interface showed a good agreement with the measured electrical conductivity profile.     

Effect of structure and texture on infiltration flow pattern during flood irrigation

Understanding the flow pattern of water and solute in subsurface soils is critically important in the fields of agricultural and environmental sciences. Dye tracer tests using a flood irrigation of Brilliant Blue FCF solution (5 g l^-1) and excavation method was performed to investigate the effect of texture and structure on the infiltration pattern at three different field soils developed from granite (GR), gneiss (GN) and limestone (LS). The GR soil showed a homogeneous matrix flow in the surface soil with weak, medium granular structure and a macropore flow along pegmatitic vein and plant root in C horizon. The surface horizon (A1) of GN soil with moderate, medium granular structure and many fine roots had matrix flow. The fingering occurred at the interfaces of sandy loam A horizon and loamy sand C horizon in GR soil and loam A1 horizon and sandy loam A2 horizon in GN soil. The LS soil with strong, coarse prismatic structure and the finest texture showed a macropore flow along cracks and had the deepest penetration of the dye tracer. The macropore (crack and vein), layer interface and plant root induced the preferential flow in the studied soils.     

Structural changes and oxidation of ferroan phlogopite with increasing temperature: in situ neutron powder diffraction and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy

The thermal response of the natural ferroan phlogopite-1M, K₂(Mg_4.46Fe_0.83Al_{0. 34}Ti_0.22)(Si_5.51Al_{2. 49})O₂₀[OH_3.59F_0.41] from Quebec, Canada, was studied with an in situ neutron powder diffraction. The in situ temperature conditions were set up at ?263, 25, 100°C and thereafter at a 100°C intervals up to 900°C. The crystal structure was refined by the Rietveld method (R _p=2.35–2.78%, R _wp=3.01–3.52%). The orientation of the O–H vector of the sample was determined by the refinement of the diffraction pattern. With increasing temperature, the angle of the OH bond to the (001) plane decreased from 87.3 to 72.5°. At room temperature, a = 5.13 Å, b = 9.20 Å, c = 10.21 Å, β = 100.06° and V(volume) = 491.69 ų. The expansion rate of the unit cell dimensions varied discontinuously with a break at 500°C. The shape of the M-octahedron underwent some significant changes such as flattening at 500°C. At temperatures above 500°C, the octahedral thickness and mean distance was decreased, while the octahedral flattening angle increased. Those results were attributed to the Fe oxidation and dehydroxylation processes. The dehydroxylation mechanism of the ferroan phlogopite was studied by the Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) after heated at temperatures ranging from 25 to 800°C with an electric furnace in a vacuum. In the OH stretching region, the intensity of the OH band associated with Fe²⁺(N _B-band) begun to decrease outstandingly at 500°C. The changes of the IR spectra confirmed that dehydroxylation was closely related to the oxidation in the vacuum of the ferrous iron in the M-octahedron. The decrease in the angle of the OH bond to the (001) plane, with increasing temperature, might be related to the imbalance of charge in the M-octahedra due to Fe oxidation.     

Influence of extractable soil manganese on oxidation capacity of different soils in Korea

We examined the relationship between soil oxidation capacity and extractable soil manganese, iron oxides, and other soil properties. The Korean soils examined in this study exhibited low to medium Cr oxidation capacities, oxidizing 0.00–0.47 mmol/kg, except for TG-4 soils, which had the highest capacity for oxidizing added Cr(III) [>1.01 mmol/kg of oxidized Cr(VI)]. TG and US soils, with high Mn contents, had relatively high oxidation capacities. The Mn amounts extracted by dithionite-citrate-bicarbonate (DCB) (Mn^d), NH₂OH·HCl (Mn^h), and hydroquinone (Mn^r) were generally very similar, except for the YS1 soils, and were well correlated. Only small proportions of either total Mn or DCB-extractable Mn were extracted by NH₂OH·HCl and hydroquinone in the YS1 soils, suggesting inclusion of NH₂OH·HCl and hydroquinone-resistant Mn oxides, because these extractants are weaker reductants than DCB. No Cr oxidation test results were closely related to total Mn concentrations, but Mn^d, Mn^h, and Mn^r showed a relatively high correlation with the Cr tests (r = 0.655–0.851; P < 0.01). The concentrations of Mn^d and Mn^h were better correlated with the Cr oxidation tests than was the Mn^r concentration, suggesting that the oxidation capacity of our soil samples can be better explained by Mn^d and Mn^h than by Mn^r. The first component in principal components analysis indicated that extractable soil Mn was a main factor controlling net Cr oxidation in the soils. Total soil Mn, Fe oxides, and the clay fraction are crucial for predicting the mobility of pollutants and heavy metals in soils. The second principal component indicated that the presence of Fe oxides in soils had a significant relationship with the clay fraction and total Mn oxide, and was also related to heavy-metal concentrations (Zn, Cd, and Cu, but not Pb).