Source identification of mine water inrush: a discussion on the application of hydrochemical method

Abstract

This paper presents an investigation on source identification of mine water inrush using a geochemical technique. The hydrogeochemistry characteristics can reflect water–rock interaction processes; therefore, the results of hydrochemical analysis could indicate the groundwater occurrence. Although hydrochemical analysis has been reviewed in previous studies, the selection of the evaluation index and the choice of units have seldom been studied. Statistical methods, hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) and principal component analysis (PCA), were used for analysis by SPSS 21.0. Piper, Durov, and Stiff diagrams were used to identify the four types of water sources. Four types of water samples were used to perform this research, and the major purpose of the present research is to examine the results obtained under different conditions. The results show that the situations arising from the selection of different identification indices, units, and identification methods can lead to great differences. The results are as follows: The selection of trace ions for identification indices can largely affect the discriminant results. In this study, identification results with fewer indicators are poor than results with more indicators as a whole. The unit milliequivalents per liter (mEq/L) is not useful for better identification results according to this study. The data is appropriate for PCA (the Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin measure of sampling adequacy is >\u20090.5, and the significance value for Bartlett’s test is <\u20090.01), but its application to reduce dimensions cannot work under all conditions.