Colorado: Deep Water Analysis Below the Plateau

Samples taken from the depths below the plateau of Colorado, these are the remains of ancient salty seas. I am based on groundwater not completely isolated from the world above. When dating the watershed between Utah and Colorado, the youngest body of water was found to be up to 2 miles (3 km) deep. But how could the fresh, younger water get deep so quickly?

The results are based on a isotope dating. The isotope is the krypton 81 radioactive and takes longer to decay than carbon. The researchers applied this technique to gas samples from 500-meter-deep holes and found deep water circulation from the surface. In practice, the deeper waters contain relatively young waters by diluting the older, saline water.

Essentially, what the etching did was create drainage channels through which water could penetrate from the surface and flush the ancient, highly saline water into the aquifers both above and below the salt deposits in the center of the deep groundwater system. We think about the different ways we use the subsurface, whether it’s to store liquids from oil and gas, or to capture carbon, we’ll have these legacies in the future. I don’t think we really looked at these systems in a way that we could or should.

Ferguson

America must therefore be vigilant about the treatment of groundwater systems. The last give drinking water to more than a third of the United States. Wells have to be dug to get to the source, but older water also increases the inflow of rivers and lakes. In 2015, research found that one in five groundwater samples in America contains a contaminant.