Abstract
To determine the impact of natural factors and human activities on the hydrogeochemical evolution of karst groundwater, hydrochemical surveys were conducted in the Jinci spring area, north China. In the present work, a comprehensive method, including hydrochemistry, isotopes, statistical analysis and hydrochemical modeling, was applied to analyze the origin of karst groundwater, hydrochemical reactions, and the causes of SO42− pollution. Isotopic characteristics (2H and 18O) suggest that karst groundwater is majorly replenished by precipitation infiltration and surface water leakage from the exposed carbonate rock areas. The hydrochemical facies evolve from HCO3-Ca and HCO3-Ca·Mg in the recharge area, to HCO3·SO4-Ca·Mg and SO4·HCO3-Ca·Mg in the transitional area, and SO4-Ca and SO4-Ca·Mg in the discharge area. Naturally, dissolution or precipitation of calcite, dolomite, gypsum and halite, as well as cation exchange predominate the hydrochemical evolution. Due to long-term coal mining activities, acid mine drainage mixed with karst groundwater, resulting in strong SO42− contamination of groundwater in the spring area. According to 34S isotope fractionation, SO42− is mainly from gypsum dissolution (64%), followed by pyrite oxidation (36%). In addition, the mixing processes, rock–water interactions, cation exchange, and dedolomitization were identified and confirmed by hydrochemical modeling with PHREEQC program. The findings of this work are meaningful for groundwater sustainable utilization and contamination management.
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The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
The sampling project was supported by Institute of Karst Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, China. We thank Yongping Liang and Zhenxing Jia for their help and technical support.
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. SL: conceptualization, methodology, software, data processing, writing—original draft preparation. NZ: conceptualization, methodology, writing—review and editing. SJ: methodology, software, writing—review and editing. XZ: supervision, software, validation, writing—review and editing. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Lu, S., Zhou, N., Jiang, S. et al. Combining hydrochemistry and environmental isotopes to study hydrogeochemical evolution of karst groundwater in the Jinci spring area, North China. Carbonates Evaporites 38, 36 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13146-023-00859-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13146-023-00859-9