Isotopic constraints on the origin of groundwater in the Ordos Basin of northern China |
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| Authors: | Jiansheng Chen Xiaoyan Liu Chiyuen Wang Wenbo Rao Hongbing Tan Haizhou Dong Xiaoxu Sun Yongsen Wang Zhiguo Su |
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| Institution: | (1) State Key Laboratory of Hydrology, Water Resources and Hydraulic Engineering, Nanjing, China;(2) College of Civil and Transportation Engineering, Nanjing, China;(3) College of Earth Sciences and Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing, China;(4) Department of Earth and Planetary Science, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA;(5) Present address: Hohai University, No. 1 Xikang Road, Nanjing, 210098, China; |
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| Abstract: | Despite its extreme aridity, the Ordos Basin in northern China is rich in groundwater. Many artesian wells or springs with
large fluxes are utilized for drinking, irrigation and industrial production. In a search for the origin of the groundwater,
a detailed investigation of the stable isotopes of oxygen and hydrogen in the local precipitation, the river water, the springs,
the well water, as well as the soil water extracted from six soil profiles in the Ordos Basin, was carried out. The data show
that δD, δ18O and TDS values of the river water are similar to those of groundwater, while the TDS values of the soil water are about
ten times greater than those of groundwater. Furthermore, the mean isotopic compositions of the local precipitation are significantly
higher than those of river water and groundwater. Based on the chloride mass balance method, the estimated recharge rates
range from 5.2 to 17.2 mm/year, with a mean value of 10.5 mm/year. The results show that the main source of recharge of the
groundwater in the Ordos Basin is not the local precipitation, but must come from a region where the precipitation is characterized
by much lower δD and δ18O values. In addition, the groundwater in the Ordos Basin contains a component of mantle-derived 3He and crust-derived 4He suggesting that the groundwater may partly derive from flows through basement faults beneath the Ordos Basin. |
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