SGER: Sampling and Isotopic Analysis of Yucatan Groundwater: Impact of Hurricane Isadore

0313847 Perry该提案旨在评估热带风暴降水，特别是飓风降水，作为地下水运动的天然示踪剂的使用。热带风暴的降水具有特殊的氧和氘同位素组成，这使其有别于正常降水。由于热带风暴也产生了许多倍于正常风暴的降雨，它们能够在一次事件中向含水层添加大量或大量的水。这项研究的目的是确定是否可以通过稳定同位素测量来追踪同位素标记的水段塞，因为它通过含水层移动。这项研究可以建立一种强大的新技术来研究飓风频繁的热带地区的地下水。 计划和建立一个适合监测飓风的实验是困难的，建立一个大型监测站网络纯粹是为了热带风暴可能发生在该网络中的某个地方，这将是昂贵的。这就是为这项建议增加紧迫性的因素。飓风“伊萨多”最近经过尤卡坦半岛的北方，该地区的PI先前已经获得了当地地下水同位素组成的背景数据。尤卡坦半岛北方特别适合试验这种监测技术：它的岩溶含水层渗透性极强，确保了地下水的快速流动;它几乎没有可能阻碍飓风降水快速流入含水层的土壤;含水层相对简单。因此，当飓风降水经过时，监测该含水层中水的成分变化将相对容易。 地下水样品将在一年内分三次取样采集。这些数据将从市政威尔斯井、覆盖的岩溶天坑和测压计（如有）中获取。学生将参与样品的收集和数据分析，同位素分析将在墨西哥国立自治大学的稳定同位素实验室进行。 这个项目的智力价值将是更好地了解地下水的行为，一种宝贵的资源，并开发一种新的，无污染的技术来绘制它的运动。这项活动的更广泛影响将包括：1）开发有关地下水运动的信息，以便更好地管理和保护尤卡坦半岛非常敏感的含水层中的地下水（对人类健康、农业生产力、工业发展和旅游业至关重要），2）墨西哥科学家和美国科学家之间建立更密切的合作，通过在这项研究中的密切合作实现，（3）对学生进行地下水取样和分析结果评价的方法教育。

0313847PerryThis proposal is to evaluate the use of tropical storm precipitation,especially that from hurricanes, as a natural tracer of groundwatermovement. Precipitation from tropical storms is known to have a specialoxygen and deuterium isotope composition that distinguishes it fromnormal precipitation. Because tropical storms also produce many times asmuch rain as normal storms, they are capable of adding a large batch orslug of water to an aquifer during a single event. The objective of thisstudy is to determine whether that slug of isotopically labeled watercan be traced by stable isotope measurements as it moves through anaquifer. This research could establish a powerful new technique to studygroundwater in tropical areas where hurricanes are frequent. It is difficult to plan and set up an experiment suitable formonitoring a hurricane, and it would be expensive to establish a largenetwork of monitoring stations purely on the chance that a tropicalstorm might occur somewhere within that network. That is what adds anelement of urgency to this proposal. Hurricane Isadore recently passedover the northern Yucatan Peninsula, an area where the PI has previouslyobtained background data on the isotopic composition of the localgroundwater. Northern Yucatan is especially well suited for a trial ofthis monitoring technique: its karst aquifer is extremely permeable,insuring rapid groundwater movement; it has almost no soil that mightimpede rapid movement of the hurricane precipitation into the aquifer;and the aquifer is relatively uncomplicated. Thus, it will be relativelyeasy to monitor changes in the composition of water in this aquifer asthe hurricane precipitation moves through. Samples of groundwater will be collected in three sampling tripsover a period of one year. These will be obtained from municipal wells,covered karst sinkholes, and piezometers (where available). Studentswill be involved in collecting the samples and analyzing the data.Isotopic analyses will be performed in the stable isotope laboratory ofthe Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico. Intellectual merit of this project will be a betterunderstanding of the behavior of groundwater, a precious resource, andthe development of a new, non-polluting technique for charting itsmovement. The broader impacts of this activity will include: 1)development of information on groundwater movement that can lead tobetter management and protection of groundwater in the very sensitiveYucatan aquifer (essential for human health, agricultural productivity,industrial development, and tourism), 2) establishment of closercollaboration between Mexican scientists and scientists in the UnitedStates, accomplished by close collaboration in this research, and 3)education of students in the procedures used to collect meaningfulsamples of groundwater and to evaluate the analytical results of thisstudy.