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Seasonal Interaction of River Water-Groundwater-Salt Lake Brine and Its Influence on Water-Salt Balance in the Nalenggele River Catchment in Qaidam Basin, NW China

  • Paleo-environment and Hydrogeology
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Abstract

Identifying interactions among river water, groundwater and salt lake brine is important for sustainable exploitation of brine mineral resources. In this study, we investigated the water exchange rate in dry and wet seasons, and assessed the influence of seasonal water exchange on brine concentration and crystallization process in the Nalenggele (NLGL) catchment of Qaidam Basin, China. The results show that the surface water infiltration and groundwater recharge rates in the wet season were 2.81 × 10−3 and 1.15 × 10−3 m3/(s·m) in upstream, 1.63 × 10−2 and 1.53 × 10−2 m3/(s·m) in midstream, and 2.83 × 10−4 and 6.82 × 10−5 m3/(s·m) in downstream, respectively; while their counterparts in the dry season were 9.81 × 10−4 and 5.05 × 10−4 m3/(s·m) in upstream, and 8.34 × 10−3 and 7.78 × 10−3 m3/(s·m) in midstream, respectively. The water exchange strongly influenced brine concentration and crystallinzation process, with brine chemistry belonging to 3K2SO4·Na2SO4 and KCl types in wet and dry seasons, respectively. The strong water exchange in wet season destroyed the water-salt balance, while the low water exchange rate in dry season facilitated preparation of KCl products.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the editors and anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments, which improved the quality of the final manuscript. This study was supported by the Key Deployment projects of the Chinese academy of sciences (No. ZDRW-ZS-2020-3), the Funds for the Qinghai Province (Nos. 2020-ZJ-932Q; 2020-ZJ-732), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 42007169), the “Western Light” of Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Fourth Batch of Qinghai Province “Thousand Talents Program for High-end Innovative Talents” (No. 2020000051) and supported by the Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition and Research Program (No. 2019QZKK0805). The final publication is available at Springer via https://doi.org/10.1007/s12583-022-1731-0.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Qinghai Provincial Key Laboratory of Geology and Environment of Salt Lakes, Qinghai Institute of Salt Lakes, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xining, 810008, China

    Jibin Han, Jianxin Xu, Lei Yi, Zheng Chang, Jianping Wang, Haizhou Ma & Hongchen Jiang

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Zheng Chang

  3. Haixi Water Resources Bureau of Qinghai Province, Delingha, 817200, China

    Baoyun Zhang

  4. State Key Laboratory of Biogeology and Environmental Geology, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, 430074, China

    Hongchen Jiang

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  1. Jibin Han
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Correspondence to Jibin Han or Hongchen Jiang.

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Han, J., Xu, J., Yi, L. et al. Seasonal Interaction of River Water-Groundwater-Salt Lake Brine and Its Influence on Water-Salt Balance in the Nalenggele River Catchment in Qaidam Basin, NW China. J. Earth Sci. 33, 1298–1308 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12583-022-1731-0

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