Abstract
Unpublished chemical and isotopic data taken in November 1992 from the three
major Saharan aquifers, namely the Continental Intercalaire (CI),
the Complexe Terminal (CT) and the phreatic aquifer (Phr), were
integrated with original samples in order to chemically and isotopically
characterize the largest Saharan aquifer system and investigate the processes
through which groundwaters acquire their mineralization. Instead of classical
Debye–Hückel extended law, a specific interaction theory (SIT) model, recently incorporated in PHREEQC 3.0, was used. Inverse modeling of hydrochemical data constrained by isotopic data was used here to quantitatively assess the influence of geochemical processes: at depth, the dissolution of salts from the geological formations during upward leakage without evaporation explains the transitions from CI to CT and to a first end member, a cluster of Phr (cluster I); near the surface, the dissolution of salts from sabkhas by
rainwater explains another cluster of Phr (cluster II). In every case,
secondary precipitation of calcite occurs during dissolution. All Phr waters
result from the mixing of these two clusters together with calcite
precipitation and ion exchange processes. These processes are quantitatively
assessed by the PHREEQC model. Globally, gypsum dissolution and calcite
precipitation were found to act as a carbon sink.
Citation
ID:
201677
Ref Key:
slimani2017hydrologyidentification