Using the Digital Crust to Understand Geochemical Reactions in the Critical Zone - a Conceptual Overview

Abstract:

The Digital Crust EarthCube building block integrates 3D/4D information about the Earth’s upper crust into a single framework. This will enable integration, visualization and utilization of data within an online environment. This data framework will be usable for hydrological and geochemical modeling. Here, we will demonstrate a concept to use the DigitalCrust framework for explaining the variance observed in groundwater chemistry in North America.

We combine 3D gridded fields of lithological data with hydrogeological information (e.g. permeability, residence time) and field measurements of major ion groundwater chemistry to improve our understanding of geochemical reactions in the critical zone (The term “critical zone” is used to describe the Earth’s permeable near-surface layer, from the top of the trees to the bottom of the groundwater). While previous empirical assessments of these reactions usually used 2D information, the new data infrastructure of the Digital Crust allows assessing a 3D contributing volume for each groundwater chemistry location. The attributes of this volume will be related to the chemical characteristics of the groundwater.

The results of this study will improve our understanding of geochemical interactions in the critical zone and geochemical fluxes to the ocean. At the same time it will demonstrate the potential of the Digital Crust as basis for innovative thematic research across disciplines.