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Origin of solutes in saline lakes and springs on the Southern High Plains of Texas and New Mexico

By:  and 
Edited by: Thomas C. Gustavson

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Abstract

Analysis of hydraulic heads, calculation of pore volume flushing, and analysis of solute and isotopic chemistry strongly suggest that the solutes originate from the concentration by evaporation of runoff and potable shallow ground water that discharges from the High Plains aquifer. Chloride/bromide solute ratios, which are thought to be unaffected by mineral precipitation or sorption, average 160 in saline lakes and springs, close to an average for the High Plains aquifer (140), and are significantly different from the average deep-basin brines (680). Solute ratios of sodium/potassium, chloride/sulfate, and sulfur isotopes, although not conservative, also strongly support the hypothesis that solutes in the lakes were derived from shallow ground water from the High Plains aquifer and from overland runoff rather than from deep-basin brines.

Publication type Book chapter
Publication Subtype Book Chapter
Title Origin of solutes in saline lakes and springs on the Southern High Plains of Texas and New Mexico
Year Published 1990
Language English
Publisher Bureau of Economic Geology
Publisher location Austin, Texas
Contributing office(s) Contaminant Biology Program
Description 16 p.
Larger Work Type Book
Larger Work Title Geologic framework and regional hydrology: Upper Cenozoic Blackwater Draw and Ogallala Formations, Great Plains
First page 193
Last page 208
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