ISOTOPE

HYDROLOGY

DIAZ, MARJO H.
ROSARITO, MARK JAYSON S.
 I S O TO P E H Y D R O L O G Y

• A field of geochemistry and hydrology that uses naturally occurring stable and
radioactive isotopic techniques to evaluate the age and origins of surface and groundwater
and the processes within the atmospheric hydrologic cycle.

• Isotope hydrology applications are highly diverse, and used for informing water-use
policy, mapping aquifers, conserving water supplies, assessing sources of water pollution,
and increasingly are used in eco-hydrology to study human impacts on all dimensions of
the hydrological cycle and ecosystem services.
 GROUNDWATER FLOW

Fig 1.

NATURAL WATER CYCLE

 E N V I R O N M E N TA L I S O TO P E S

• a subset of the isotopes, both stable and radioactive, which are the object of isotope
geochemistry. They are primarily used as tracers to see how things move around within
the ocean-atmosphere system, within terrestrial biomes, within the Earth's surface, and
between these broad domains.

• The most frequently used environmental isotopes include those of the water molecule,
hydrogen (2H or D, and 3H) and oxygen (18O), as well as carbon (13C and 14C)
occurring in water as constituents of dissolved inorganic and organic carbon compounds.
 E N V I R O N M E N TA L I S O TO P E S

The hydrogen isotopes may be written:

• 1H—common hydrogen, 1 proton

• 2H—deuterium (also written D), heavy stable hydrogen,

1 proton + 1 neutron

• 3H—tritium (also written T), radioactive hydrogen,

1 proton + 2 neutrons.
• 2H, 13C and 18O are stable isotopes of the respective elements whereas 3H and 14C are radioactive
isotopes.

Fig. 2: Environmental isotopes (stable and radioactive)

 UNITS OF ISOTOPIC COMPOSITION OF
WATER

• The isotopic composition of water is expressed in comparison to the isotopic composition of ocean water. For this
purpose an inter nationally agreed upon sample of ocean water has been selected, called Standard Mean Ocean Water
(SMOW).

• The isotopic composition of water, determined by mass spectrometry, is expressed in per mil ‰ deviations from the
SMOW standard. These deviations are written D for the deuterium, and 18O for 18O:
Fig. 3

ISOTOPE RATIO MASS SPECTROMETRY

RADIOACTIVE ISOTOPES

• Among the environmental radioisotopes, tritium and carbon-14 have found the widest
application in groundwater studies. Radioactive isotopes (also called radioisotopes) occurring in
groundwater originate from natural and/or artificial nuclear processes.

ISOTOPES IN GROUNDWATER
• Tracing groundwater by means of environmental isotopes, offers unique and supplementary
information on the origin and movement of groundwater and its dissolved constituents, as well as
allows a quantitative evaluation of mixing and other physical processes such as evaporation and
isotopic exchange in geothermal systems.
 14C GROUNDWATER DATING

Fig. 4
GROUNDWATER CONTAMINATION
• Groundwater contamination and pollution is a major public health issue throughout the world. It is increasing due to
agricultural practices as well as domestic and industrial wastewater releases, while rapid urbanization contributes
pollutants in complex ways. Wastewater is artificially recharging aquifer systems.

• The phosphate fertilizer added to agricultural crops adds a level of radium and uranium isotopes to the treated soil.
The levels are significant to necessitate health physics protection measures to the workers handling them.

• The ashes left from burning coal in electrical energy production contain uranium and radium isotopes that could lead
to subsurface water contamination if used in road construction or as fertilizer. The provision of safe drinking water
from deep tube wells is an important strategy being considered for the mitigation of arsenic contamination in many
locations.
THE END.