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Emerging Contaminants: The Rough Teenagers
In geochemistry I see the term “bad actors” used more often than it should be to describe well-known environmental contaminants. “Bad actors” refers to contaminants we see frequently in the environment and know have significant environmental or human health effects. Think mercury, nitrates, lead, arsenic, sulphur dioxide, etc. However, this article is on the up and coming c ...[Read More]
Welcome to Water Underground
A big welcome to the new EGU blog network blog Water Underground! Water Underground is the first geoscience blog that I am aware to be cross-hosted on both the EGU and AGU blog networks allowing it to reach people across the world. Water Underground, founded by Dr. Tom Gleeson, a prof at the University of Victoria, Canada, is a welcome addition to the EGU as it will cover groundwater, climate, and ...[Read More]
Tracking the Fallout and Fate of Fukushima Iodine-129 in Rain and Groundwater
A recently published paper (by myself and colleagues from uOttawa and Environment Canada) investigates the environmental fate of the long lived radioisotope of iodine, 129I, which was released by the Fukushima-Daichii Nuclear Accident (FDNA). Within 6 days of the FDNA 129I concentrations in Vancouver precipitation increased 5-15 times above pre-Fukushima concentrations and then rapidly returned to ...[Read More]
Bubbling Merrily: Artesian Springs
Display "Artesian spring" from YouTube Click here to display content from YouTube. Learn more in YouTube’s privacy policy (opens in a new tab). Please enable JavaScript in your browser to load this content. Always display content from YouTube Open "Artesian spring" directly I recorded the video above on a recent field camp near Deep River, Ontario. This video shows a great exam ...[Read More]
ATTA and the Curious Case of Krypton-81
Ok, so I took some license with the title. This isn’t really a curious case and neither Krypton-81 nor ATTA are actually people. In fact, Krypton-81 (81Kr) is a radioisotope of the noble gas krypton and ATTA, which stands for atom trap trace analysis, is the revolutionary technique that has made its analysis possible. I recently heard about developments with ATTA at the IAEA Isotope Hydrolog ...[Read More]
Guest Post: Jeremy Bennett – Approaches to modelling heterogeneity in sedimentary deposits
Hello everyone. Great that you could make it out to my blog post. I would like to introduce you to some ideas about environmental modelling that I have recently discovered during my work. These ideas are from this paper by Christine Koltermann and Steven Gorelick back in 1996. Whilst the primary focus of their paper is on modelling hydrogeological properties such as hydraulic conductivity, I think ...[Read More]
Geology Photo of the Week #46
This week’s photo brings us back to the world of geochemistry. I don’t have much information on this photo beyond that it was taken in Italy. However, if I may speculate a little it looks like these crystals may possibly be volcanic in origin and the fact that it was taken in Italy, which is famous for its volcanic sulphur deposits. I say this because such crystals are often found nea ...[Read More]
GeoPoll: What should we do with radioactive waste?
I don’t think it is any secret that the world is facing an imminent energy crisis. We are trying to generate more power than ever before, but at the same time, we now realize we have to do it in a sustainable way that does not harm the environment or exacerbate any existing issues such as climate change. The problem is these two goals are often mutually exclusive. Most of our power generatio ...[Read More]
Modelling the Vadose Zone…What fun!
Sometimes our projects take stage and unexpected turns down pathways that we have no experience in whatsoever. My project on the input of Fukushima iodine-129 into groundwater has taken one of those turns. This is not a bad thing, but it is a time consuming one, as these deviations often are. However, instead of bemoaning my new lot in life as modeller of the unsaturated (vadose) zone, I thought I ...[Read More]