Contributions of groundwater conditions to soil and water salinization |
| |
| Authors: | Ramsis B Salama Claus J Otto Robert W Fitzpatrick |
| |
| Institution: | (1) CSIRO Land and Water, Private Bag, PO Wembley Western Australia 6014, Australia Fax: +61-9387-8211 e-mail: claus.otto@per.clw.csiro.au, AU;(2) CSIRO Land and Water, Private Bag No 2, Glen Osmond South Australia 5064, Australia, AU |
| |
| Abstract: | Salinization is the process whereby the concentration of dissolved salts in water and soil is increased due to natural or
human-induced processes. Water is lost through one or any combination of four main mechanisms: evaporation, evapotranspiration,
hydrolysis, and leakage between aquifers. Salinity increases from catchment divides to the valley floors and in the direction
of groundwater flow. Salinization is explained by two main chemical models developed by the authors: weathering and deposition.
These models are in agreement with the weathering and depositional geological processes that have formed soils and overburden
in the catchments. Five soil-change processes in arid and semi-arid climates are associated with waterlogging and water. In
all represented cases, groundwater is the main geological agent for transmitting, accumulating, and discharging salt. At a
small catchment scale in South and Western Australia, water is lost through evapotranspiration and hydrolysis. Saline groundwater
flows along the beds of the streams and is accumulated in paleochannels, which act as a salt repository, and finally discharges
in lakes, where most of the saline groundwater is concentrated. In the hummocky terrains of the Northern Great Plains Region,
Canada and USA, the localized recharge and discharge scenarios cause salinization to occur mainly in depressions, in conjunction
with the formation of saline soils and seepages. On a regional scale within closed basins, this process can create playas
or saline lakes. In the continental aquifers of the rift basins of Sudan, salinity increases along the groundwater flow path
and forms a saline zone at the distal end. The saline zone in each rift forms a closed ridge, which coincides with the closed
trough of the groundwater-level map. The saline body or bodies were formed by evaporation coupled with alkaline-earth carbonate
precipitation and dissolution of capillary salts.
Received, May 1998 · Revised, July 1998 · Accepted, September 1998 |
| |
| Keywords: | geomorphology groundwater flow salinization chemical models geological agent |
| 本文献已被 SpringerLink 等数据库收录！ |
|
