Tritium hydrology of the Mississippi River basin
Abstract
In the early 1960s, the US Geological Survey began routinely analysing river water samples for tritium concentrations at locations within the Mississippi River basin. The sites included the main stem of the Mississippi River (at Luling Ferry, Louisiana), and three of its major tributaries, the Ohio River (at Markland Dam, Kentucky), the upper Missouri River (at Nebraska City, Nebraska) and the Arkansas River (near Van Buren, Arkansas). The measurements cover the period during the peak of the bomb‐produced tritium transient when tritium concentrations in precipitation rose above natural levels by two to three orders of magnitude. Using measurements of tritium concentrations in precipitation, a tritium input function was established for the river basins above the Ohio River, Missouri River and Arkansas River sampling locations. Owing to the extent of the basin above the Luling Ferry site, no input function was developed for that location. The input functions for the Ohio and Missouri Rivers were then used in a two‐component mixing model to estimate residence times of water within these two basins. (The Arkansas River was not modelled because of extremely large yearly variations in flow during the peak of the tritium transient.) The two components used were: (i) recent precipitation (prompt outflow) and (ii) waters derived from the long‐term groundwater reservoir of the basin. The tritium concentration of the second component is a function of the atmospheric input and the residence times of the groundwaters within the basin. Using yearly time periods, the parameters of the model were varied until a best fit was obtained between modelled and measured tritium data. The results from the model indicate that about 40% of the flow in the Ohio River was from prompt outflow, as compared with 10% for the Missouri River. Mean residence times of 10 years were calculated for the groundwater component of the Ohio River versus 4 years for the Missouri River. The mass flux of tritium through the Mississippi Basin and its tributaries was calculated during the years that tritium measurements were made. The cumulative fluxes, calculated in grams of 3H were: (i) 160 g for the Ohio (1961–1986), (ii) 98 g for the upper Missouri (1963–1997), (iii) 30 g for the Arkansas (1961–1997) and (iv) 780 g for the Mississippi (1961–1997). Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Number of times cited: 22
- Loïc Ducros, Frédérique Eyrolle, Claire Della Vedova, Sabine Charmasson, Marc Leblanc, Adriano Mayer, Milanka Babic, Christelle Antonelli, David Mourier and Franck Giner, Tritium in river waters from French Mediterranean catchments: Background levels and variability, Science of The Total Environment, 612, (672), (2018).
- Sarah M. Stackpoole, Edward G. Stets, David W. Clow, Douglas A. Burns, George R. Aiken, Brent T. Aulenbach, Irena F. Creed, Robert M. Hirsch, Hjalmar Laudon, Brian A. Pellerin and Robert G. Striegl, Spatial and temporal patterns of dissolved organic matter quantity and quality in the Mississippi River Basin, 1997–2013, Hydrological Processes, 31, 4, (902-915), (2016).
- Yuchuan Meng and Guodong Liu, A comparative study in tritium in precipitation in four Chinese cities with different climate regimes, Environmental Earth Sciences, 76, 6, (2017).
- Benjamin W. Abbott, Viktor Baranov, Clara Mendoza-Lera, Myrto Nikolakopoulou, Astrid Harjung, Tamara Kolbe, Mukundh N. Balasubramanian, Timothy N. Vaessen, Francesco Ciocca, Audrey Campeau, Marcus B. Wallin, Paul Romeijn, Marta Antonelli, José Gonçalves, Thibault Datry, Anniet M. Laverman, Jean-Raynald de Dreuzy, David M. Hannah, Stefan Krause, Carolyn Oldham and Gilles Pinay, Using multi-tracer inference to move beyond single-catchment ecohydrology, Earth-Science Reviews, 10.1016/j.earscirev.2016.06.014, 160, (19-42), (2016).
- A. Visser, J.E. Moran, Darren Hillegonds, M.J. Singleton, Justin T. Kulongoski, Kenneth Belitz and B.K. Esser, Geostatistical analysis of tritium, groundwater age and other noble gas derived parameters in California, Water Research, 10.1016/j.watres.2016.01.004, 91, (314-330), (2016).
- Patrick A. Harms, Ate Visser, Jean E. Moran and Brad K. Esser, Distribution of tritium in precipitation and surface water in California, Journal of Hydrology, 10.1016/j.jhydrol.2015.12.046, 534, (63-72), (2016).
- Robert L. Michel, Pradeep Aggarwal, Luis Araguas‐Araguas, Tuerker Kurttas, Brent D. Newman and Tomas Vitvar, A simplified approach to analysing historical and recent tritium data in surface waters, Hydrological Processes, 29, 4, (572-578), (2014).
- Yihua Cai, Laodong Guo, Xuri Wang and George Aiken, Abundance, stable isotopic composition, and export fluxes of DOC, POC, and DIC from the Lower Mississippi River during 2006–2008, Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, 120, 11, (2273-2288), (2015).
- Lan Cuo, Yongxin Zhang, Fuxin Zhu and Liqiao Liang, Characteristics and changes of streamflow on the Tibetan Plateau: A review, Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies, 10.1016/j.ejrh.2014.08.004, 2, (49-68), (2014).
- M. Kralik, F. Humer, J. Fank, T. Harum, G. Klammler, D. Gooddy, J. Sültenfuß, C. Gerber and R. Purtschert, Using 18 O/ 2 H, 3 H/ 3 He, 85 Kr and CFCs to determine mean residence times and water origin in the Grazer and Leibnitzer Feld groundwater bodies (Austria), Applied Geochemistry, 50, (150), (2014).
- C. Kendall, D.H. Doctor and M.B. Young, Environmental Isotope Applications in Hydrologic Studies, Treatise on Geochemistry, 10.1016/B978-0-08-095975-7.00510-6, (273-327), (2014).
- STEPHEN K. HAMILTON, Biogeochemical time lags may delay responses of streams to ecological restoration, Freshwater Biology, 57, s1, (43-57), (2011).
- Y. Yi, J. J. Gibson, L. W. Cooper, J.‐F. Hélie, S. J. Birks, J. W. McClelland, R. M. Holmes and B. J. Peterson, Isotopic signals (18O, 2H, 3H) of six major rivers draining the pan‐Arctic watershed, Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 26, 1, (2012).
- K. Maher, The role of fluid residence time and topographic scales in determining chemical fluxes from landscapes, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 10.1016/j.epsl.2011.09.040, 312, 1-2, (48-58), (2011).
- Casey D. Kennedy, Gabriel J. Bowen and James R. Ehleringer, Temporal variation of oxygen isotope ratios (δ18O) in drinking water: Implications for specifying location of origin with human scalp hair, Forensic Science International, 10.1016/j.forsciint.2010.11.021, 208, 1-3, (156-166), (2011).
- Michael K. Stewart, Uwe Morgenstern and Jeffrey J. McDonnell, Truncation of stream residence time: how the use of stable isotopes has skewed our concept of streamwater age and origin, Hydrological Processes, 24, 12, (1646-1659), (2010).
- P.B. McMahon, C.P. Carney, E.P. Poeter and S.M. Peterson, Use of geochemical, isotopic, and age tracer data to develop models of groundwater flow for the purpose of water management, northern High Plains aquifer, USA, Applied Geochemistry, 25, 6, (910), (2010).
- Robert L. Michel, Chapter 5 Radionuclides as Tracers and Timers in Surface and Groundwater, Environmental Radionuclides: Tracers and Timers of Terrestrial Processes, 10.1016/S1569-4860(09)01605-2, (139-230), (2009).
- D.G. Fleishman, Cosmogenic 22Na as an index of the residence time of water in freshwater basins: a review, Journal of Environmental Radioactivity, 99, 8, (1203), (2008).
- S. Rose, Utilization of Decadal Tritium Variation for Assessing the Residence Time of Base Flow, Groundwater, 45, 3, (309-317), (2007).
- Kevin J. McGuire and Jeffrey J. McDonnell, A review and evaluation of catchment transit time modeling, Journal of Hydrology, 330, 3-4, (543), (2006).
- Kellie B. Vaché and Jeffrey J. McDonnell, A process‐based rejectionist framework for evaluating catchment runoff model structure, Water Resources Research, 42, 2, (2006).
