A forensics-based approach for assessing incipient heterogeneity of a hydrologic system.

Abstract:

Hydrologic systems are far from being static in time. Therefore, the study of the evolution of natural systems along with the investigation of the interactions between hydrology, geochemistry and geophysics can be highly beneficial for improving hydrologic predictions. In this study, a combined hydrologic, geophysical and geochemical approach is proposed to investigate the incipient heterogeneity in a small hydrologic system subject to intensive flux of water through a period of one year. The Mini-LEO is a sloping metallic lysimeter containing 1 m³ of granular basalt, constructed as a smaller scale version of Landscape Evolution Observatory (LEO) artificial hillslopes. The initially pristine soil inside the Mini-LEO had undergone several cycles of irrigation, which might have changed the internal structure of this system, as observed by both hydrometric data and corroborated by studies pointing out to a rapid weathering of the basaltic soil. A forensic approach was proposed, where the Mini-LEO was systematically excavated for the investigation of its initial signs of hydrologic co-evolution.

The lysimeter was sub-divided in voxels, for which 100 undisturbed soil samples and fragmented subsamples were collected for further analysis of soil hydraulic properties (saturated hydraulic conductivity and characteristic curve) as well as geochemical composition (elemental dissolution/accumulations and mineralogical transformations). Additionally, electrical resistivity (ER) measurements at different water content were measured for each sample. The results of this study are manifold: The expected geochemical signature will be used for validating current hydro-geochemical models of the Mini-LEO, and the superposition of the geochemical and hydraulic analysis will serve as discriminatory data for the results of geophysical investigation.