Groundwaters
Groundwaters derive their compositions from a variety of processes, including dissolution, hydrolysis, and precipitation reactions; adsorption and ion exchange; oxidation and reduction; gas exchange between groundwater and the atmosphere; and biological processes.
| component | origin* |
|---|---|
| *The sources for each constituent are given in approximate order of decreasing importance. | |
| Source: Adapted from Elizabeth Kay Berner and Robert A. Berner, The Global Water Cycle: Geochemistry and Environment, copyright 1987, Table 4.6, p. 170. Reproduced by permission of Prentice Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, N.J. | |
| sodium ion | sodium chloride dissolution (some pollutive) |
| plagioclase weathering | |
| rainwater addition | |
| potassium ion | biotite weathering |
| K-feldspar weathering | |
| biomass decreases | |
| dissolution of trapped aerosols | |
| magnesium ion | amphibole and pyroxene weathering |
| biotite (and chlorite) weathering | |
| dolomite weathering | |
| olivine weathering | |
| rainwater addition | |
| calcium ion | calcite weathering |
| plagioclase weathering | |
| dolomite weathering | |
| dissolution of trapped aerosols | |
| biomass decreases | |
| bicarbonate ion | calcite and dolomite weathering |
| silicate weathering | |
| sulfate ion | pyrite weathering (some pollutive) |
| rainwater addition | |
| chloride ion | sodium chloride dissolution (some pollutive) |
| rainwater addition | |
| hydrogen silicate | silicate weathering |
The biological processes of greatest importance are microbial metabolism, organic production, and respiration (oxidation). By far the most important overall process for the major constituents of groundwater is that of mineral-water reactions, which were briefly described above in River and ocean waters. Thus, the composition of groundwaters strongly reflects the types of rock minerals that the waters have encountered in their movement through the subsurface.
In general, the most mobile elements in groundwater—i.e., those most easily liberated by the weathering of rock minerals—are calcium, sodium, and magnesium. Silicon and potassium have intermediate mobilities, and aluminum and iron are essentially immobile and locked up in solid phases.
Groundwaters are highly susceptible to contamination because of human activities and the fact that their dissolved constituents are derived to a large extent from the leaching of surface materials. Some of the nitrogen and phosphorus applied to soils as fertilizers and organic pesticides may be leached and leak into groundwater systems, leading to increased concentrations of ammonium and phosphate. Radioactive wastes, industrial chemicals, household materials, and mine refuse are other anthropogenic sources of dissolved substances that have been detected in groundwater systems.
Ice
Ice is nearly a pure solid and, as such, accommodates few foreign ions in its structure. It does contain, however, particulate matter and gases, which are trapped in bubbles within the ice. The change in composition of these materials through time, as recorded in the successive layers of ice, has been used to interpret the history of Earth’s surface environment and the impact of human activities on this environment. The increase in the lead content of continental glacial ice with decreasing age of the ice up to the middle of the 1970s, for example, reflects the progressive input of tetraethyl lead into the global environment from gasoline burning. (Stringent environmental regulations that appeared in the 1970s regarding the use of leaded gasoline has led to a fall in lead concentrations in ice laid down since that time.) Also, atmospheric carbon dioxide and methane concentrations, which have increased significantly during the past century because of anthropogenic activities, are faithfully recorded in ice bubbles of the thick continental ice sheets. By 2016 atmospheric carbon dioxide and methane concentrations had increased by more than 43 percent and more than 150 percent, respectively, higher than their concentrations 200 years ago; the latter concentration values were obtained from measurements of the gases in air trapped in ice.