Diederik Jan Postma

Gas transport in a confined unsaturated zone during atmospheric pressure cycles

Gas transport induced by temporal pressure fluctuations in the atmosphere can be an important mechanism for transport of atmospheric oxygen within the unsaturated zone. Moreover, the presence of oxygen in the unsaturated zone may be a factor controlling oxidation of sulphide minerals and other redox processes. A field study was carried out in a glacial aquifer with a 10–12 m thick sandy unsaturated zone to explore gas exchange between the atmosphere and the unsaturated zone. The exchange occurs through a “geological window” in a till layer which covers the sandy unsaturated zone. Observed pressure distribution and oxygen concentrations within the unsaturated zone were compared to numerical simulations with SUTRA, a finite element and fluid density dependent groundwater flow model. The simulations were carried out by modeling the gas pressure distribution within the unsaturated zone based on atmospheric pressure time series. The spatial variation in permeability observed from borehole logging was implemented in the model. The analysis demonstrated a good match between the field observations and the numerical simulations. During an atmospheric pressure cycle, atmospheric oxygen migrated more than 10 md−1 horizontally in the capped unsaturated zone. The analysis shows that both the amplitude and the length of the period of pressure variations are important for the transport of oxygen, and it shows that the combined effects determine the extent of a subsurface zone where atmospheric oxygen can reach.

Advective and diffusive contributions to reactive gas transport during pyrite oxidation in the unsaturated zone

[1] Pyrite oxidation in unsaturated mine waste rock dumps and soils is limited by the supply of oxygen from the atmosphere. In models, oxygen transport through the subsurface is often assumed to be driven by diffusion. However, oxygen comprises 23.2% by mass of dry air, and when oxygen is consumed at depth in the unsaturated zone, a pressure gradient is created between the reactive zone and the ground surface, causing a substantial advective air flow into the subsurface. To determine the balance between advective and diffusive transport, a one-dimensional multicomponent unsaturated zone gas transport model is developed. Both advection-diffusion and Maxwell-Stefan model formulations are presented. A steady state analytical solution is derived that provides insight into solution behavior and which can be used to test numerical models. A numerical solution is obtained for both the steady and transient cases. At steady state, advection comprises approximately 23% of the total oxygen flux, with the contribution of advection being almost entirely determined by the composition of the atmosphere. Other parameters, such as the permeability, have a negligible effect on the proportion of advective flows at steady state. However, greater pressure gradients are found in low-permeability soils. In transient cases, advective fluxes depend on the initial conditions and can be far greater than diffusive fluxes. In contrast to steady state conditions the transient case is sensitive to other model parameters; for example, the time to approach steady state depends exponentially on the distance between the soil surface and the subsurface reactive zone.