U.S.-Australia Cooperative Research: Paleohydrologic Implications of Natural Soil-Water Isotopes

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This award will support collaborative research between Dr. William Stone of the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, and Dr. Glen R. Walker of the Divison of Water Resources, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, Glen Osmond, South Australia. The investigators will study means for obtaining information on paleohydrologic conditions using a chloride mass- balance approach by testing the method in the Murray Basin of South Australia, where both chronologic and paleoclimatological data are available. Samples obtained from several 40m boreholes will be analyzed for moisture, soil-water chloride, oxygen-18, and deuterium content, and the results compared with results of stable and radioactive isotopes, existing chronologic data, and previous paleoclimate reconstructions. This project combines the expertise of the two investigators, one in the use of isotopes and the chloride mass-balance method, and the other in Australian Geology. The results of this research should contribute to our basic understanding of the behavior of radioactive isotopes in soils, with longer-term impact on the study of ground water resources and waste disposal dynamics.