Christian Herrera

Relación de aguas superficiales y subterráneas en el área del lago Chungará y lagunas de Cotacotani, norte de Chile: un estudio isotópico

El lago Chungara y las lagunas de Cotacotani corresponden a cuerpos de aguas superficiales localizados al noroeste de la Cuenca del Lauca, en el Altiplano del norte de Chile. Todas las aguas superficiales y subterraneas tienen una salinidad baja a moderada con conductividades electricas variables entre 48,7 y 3090 µS/cm. Los lagos estan conectados a acuiferos situados en los flancos de los edificios volcanicos proximos, asi como en los depositos de brechas de avalancha del volcan Parinacota. Las composiciones isotopicas de d18O y dD y su relacion con las concentraciones de cloruro de las aguas del lago Chungara, lagunas de Cotacotani, manantiales afluentes y del rio Chungara, demuestran que: a. las aguas del lago Chungara presentan una composicion quimica e isotopica homogenea tanto en la horizontal como en la vertical, lo que indica una buena mezcla de las aguas en el lago; b. una parte importante de la recarga hidrica que alimenta las lagunas de Cotacotani procede de aguas del lago Chungara, canalizada a traves de un flujo lateral subterraneo y c. el agua subterranea que da origen a los manantiales de la zona tiene su recarga principal en las precipitaciones que se registran durante los meses de primavera-verano (octubre-marzo). Los altos contenidos de tritio (3H) medidos en las aguas de los manantiales del sector indican que existe una recarga actual (durante los ultimos decenios) al sistema acuifero. La aplicacion de modelos de parametro agregado para la interpretacion del tiempo de residencia del agua en el acuifero indica que el modelo de flujo de piston es el que mejor se ajusta a las caracteristicas isotopicas de estas aguas subterraneas.

Groundwater flow in a closed basin with a saline shallow lake in a volcanic area: Laguna Tuyajto, northern Chilean Altiplano of the Andes

Laguna Tuyajto is a small, shallow saline water lake in the Andean Altiplano of northern Chile. In the eastern side it is fed by springs that discharge groundwater of the nearby volcanic aquifers. The area is arid: rainfall does not exceed 200mm/year in the rainiest parts. The stable isotopic content of spring water shows that the recharge is originated mainly from winter rain, snow melt, and to a lesser extent from some short and intense sporadic rainfall events. Most of the spring water outflowing in the northern side of Laguna Tuyajto is recharged in the Tuyajto volcano. Most of the spring water in the eastern side and groundwater are recharged at higher elevations, in the rims of the nearby endorheic basins of Pampa Colorada and Pampa Las Tecas to the East. The presence of tritium in some deep wells in Pampa Colorada and Pampa Las Tecas indicates recent recharge. Gas emission in recent volcanoes increase the sulfate content of atmospheric deposition and this is reflected in local groundwater. The chemical composition and concentration of spring waters are the result of meteoric water evapo-concentration, water-rock interaction, and mainly the dissolution of old and buried evaporitic deposits. Groundwater flow is mostly shallow due to a low permeability ignimbrite layer of regional extent, which also hinders brine spreading below and around the lake. High deep temperatures near the recent Tuyajto volcano explain the high dissolved silica contents and the δ(18)O shift to heavier values found in some of the spring waters. Laguna Tuyajto is a terminal lake where salts cumulate, mostly halite, but some brine transfer to the Salar de Aguas Calientes-3 cannot be excluded. The hydrogeological behavior of Laguna Tuyajto constitutes a model to understand the functioning of many other similar basins in other areas in the Andean Altiplano.

Groundwater origin and recharge in the hyperarid Cordillera de la Costa, Atacama Desert, northern Chile

The Cordillera de la Costa is located along the coastline of northern Chile, in the hyperarid Atacama Desert area. Chemical and isotopic analyses of several small coastal springs and groundwater reservoirs between 22.5 °S and 25.5 °S allow understanding groundwater origin, renewal time and the probable timing of recharge. The aquifers are mostly in old volcanic rocks and alluvial deposits. All spring waters are brackish, of the sodium chloride type due to intensive concentration of precipitation due aridity and for deep groundwater to additional water-rock interaction in slowly renewed groundwater and mixing with deep seated brines. The heavy δ18O and δ2H values in spring water are explained by recharge by the arrival of moist air masses from the Pacific Ocean and the originally lighter values in the deep wells can be associated to past recharge by air masses coming from the Atlantic Ocean. Current recharge is assumed almost nil but it was significant in past wetter-than-present periods, increasing groundwater reserves, which are not yet exhausted. To explain the observed chloride content and radiocarbon (14C) activity, a well-mixed (exponential) flow model has been considered for aquifer recharge. The average residence time of groundwater feeding the springs has been estimated between 1 and 2kyr, up to 5kyr and between 7 and 13kyr for deep well water, assuming that current recharge is much less than during the previous wetter period. The recharge period feeding the coastal springs could have been produced 1 to 5kyr BP, when the area was already inhabited, and recharge in the Michilla mine was produced during the 10 to 14.5kyr BP CAPE (Central Andean Pluvial Event) pluvial events of the central Andes. The approximate coincidence of turnover time with the past wet periods, as revealed by paleoclimate data, points to significant recharge during them.

Recent climatic events controlling the hydrological and the aquifer dynamics at arid areas: The case of Huasco River watershed, northern Chile

The investigation assesses the influence of recent climatic events in the water resources and the aquifer dynamics in the Huasco watershed by means of the analysis of precipitation, streamflow and piezometric levels during the last 50years. These hydrological and hydrogeological parameters were evaluated by an exploratory geostatistical analysis (semivariogram) and a spectral analysis (periodogram). Specifically, the hydrological and hydrogeological data analyses are organized according to three sub-basins, the Del Carmen River (Section I), the El Tránsito River (Section II), and the Huasco River (Section III). Data ranges for rainfall are from 1961 to 2015, for streamflow from 1964 to 2015, and for groundwater levels from 1969 to 2014, available from Water Authority of Chile. The analyses allowed the identification of cycles in the hydrological and hydrogeological records. The study area is located in a transient climatic fringe where the convergence of several climatic systems can be identified in the hydrological and hydrogeological records. Results indicate that the nival areas and the small glaciers are especially important to the recharge processes in the Huasco watershed during the spring-summer snowmelting. Water reservoirs in the main aquifer (Section III) and in the Santa Juana dam are highly sensitive to ENSO oscillation climatic patterns. The main climatic events that control this record are the El Niño and La Niña events. In addition, the climatic influence of the westerlies and the SE extratropical moisture were also identified. Spectral analysis identified the presence of a 22.9-yearcycle in piezometric levels of the alluvial aquifer of the Huasco River. This cycle is consistent with the 22-year Hale solar cycle, suggesting the existence of a solar forcing controlling the ENSO oscillations. Moreover, semivariogram and spectral analysis identified a 10.65-yearcycle and a 9.2-yearcycle in groundwater, respectively, which were attributed to the strong mode of ENSO oscillations.

Land surface temperature as an indicator of the unsaturated zone thickness: A remote sensing approach in the Atacama Desert

Land surface temperature (LST) seems to be related to the temperature of shallow aquifers and the unsaturated zone thickness (∆Zuz). That relationship is valid when the study area fulfils certain characteristics: a) there should be no downward moisture fluxes in an unsaturated zone, b) the soil composition in terms of both, the different horizon materials and their corresponding thermal and hydraulic properties, must be as homogeneous and isotropic as possible, c) flat and regular topography, and d) steady state groundwater temperature with a spatially homogeneous temperature distribution. A night time Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) image and temperature field measurements are used to test the validity of the relationship between LST and ∆Zuz at the Pampa del Tamarugal, which is located in the Atacama Desert (Chile) and meets the above required conditions. The results indicate that there is a relation between the land surface temperature and the unsaturated zone thickness in the study area. Moreover, the field measurements of soil temperature indicate that shallow aquifers dampen both the daily and the seasonal amplitude of the temperature oscillation generated by the local climate conditions. Despite empirically observing the relationship between the LST and ∆Zuz in the study zone, such a relationship cannot be applied to directly estimate ∆Zuz using temperatures from nighttime thermal satellite images. To this end, it is necessary to consider the soil thermal properties, the soil surface roughness and the unseen water and moisture fluxes (e.g., capillarity and evaporation) that typically occur in the subsurface.

Correlation of the seasonal isotopic amplitude of precipitation with annual evaporation and altitude in alpine regions.

The time series of stable water isotope composition relative to IAEA-GNIP meteorological stations located in alpine zones are analyzed in order to study how the amplitude of the seasonal isotopic composition of precipitation (Aδ) varies along a vertical transect. A clear relationship between Aδ and local evaporation is obtained, with slopes of -0.87 ‰/100mm/yr and -7.3 ‰/100mm/yr for Aδ(18)O and Aδ(2)H, respectively. When all sampling points of the vertical transect receive the same moisture sources, then a linear relationship between Aδ and elevation is obtained, with vertical gradients of 0.16 ‰/100mm/yr and 1.46 ‰/100mm/yr forAδ(18)O and Aδ(2)H, respectively.

Combining point and regular lattice data in geostatistical interpolation

Abstract This work studies how to include both point and areal measurements when estimating gaussian fields by kriging. To achieve this objective, three geostatistical approaches are considered for the areal distributed data: (a) regionalized measurements that are geographically referenced by their centroid as if they were point measurements, (b) regionalized measurements that are explicitly accounted by formally computing all the needed covariances (i.e. area-to-area, area-to-point and point-to-point covariances, respectively) and (c) regionalized measurements that are used as an external drift variable. Results indicate that the measurement error corresponding to the areal data plays a key role to decide when the spatial support of the areal measurements is relevant. For small measurement errors, it is necessary to explicitly consider the spatial support of the areal measurements to avoid large estimation variances. For large measurement errors, the difference between defining areal measurements by using their actual spatial support and defining areal measurements by referencing them by their centroids (i.e. gravity centre) is small. In this situation, it is possible to use the areal measurements as an external drift instead of merging both types of information (i.e. point and areal data) as measurements for kriging. In this case, the cross-validation analysis shows a larger coefficient of determination, similar average kriging variance and smaller mean square error than the obtained in the case of merging point and areal measurements for kriging.