ALBERT

Description: Knowledge of groundwater flow is of high relevance for groundwater management and the planning of different subsurface utilizations such as deep geothermal facilities. While numerical models can help to understand the hydrodynamics of the targeted reservoir, their predictive capabilities are limited by the assumptions made in their set up. Among others, the choice of appropriate hydraulic boundary conditions, adopted to represent the regional to local flow dynamics in the simulation run, is of crucial importance for the final modelling result. In this publication we present the hydrogeological models to obtain results to quantify how and to which degree different upper hydraulic boundary conditions and vertical cross boundary fluid movement influence the calculated deep fluid conditions Therefore, we take the central Upper Rhine Graben area as a natural laboratory. The presented three models are set up with different sets of boundary conditions. The Reference Model uses the topography as upper hydraulic pressure surface of 0 kPa. In model S1, a subdued replica of the topography, which was built on the base of hydraulic head measurements is applied as the upper hydraulic boundary condition and in model S2 vertical cross boundary flow is implemented. Based on our results, we illustrate in the landing paper that for the Upper Rhine Graben specific characteristics of the flow field are robust and insensitive to the choice of imposed hydraulic boundary conditions, while specific local characteristics are more sensitive. Accordingly, these robust features characterizing the first order groundwater flow dynamics in the Upper Rhine Graben include: (i) a regional groundwater flow component descending from the graben shoulders to rise at its centre; (ii) infiltration of fluids across the graben shoulders, which locally rise along the main border faults; (iii) the presence of heterogeneous hydraulic potentials at the rift shoulders. The configuration of the adopted boundary conditions influence primarily calculated flow velocities and the absolute position of the upflow axis within the graben sediments. In addition, the choice of upper hydraulic boundary conditions exerts a direct control on the evolving local flow dynamics, with the degree of influence gradually decreasing with increasing depth. With respect to regional flow modelling of basin hosted, deep water resources, the main conclusions derived from this study are: (i) the often considered water table as an exact replica of the model topography (Reference Model) likely introduces a source of error in the simulations in regional hydraulic modelling approaches. Here, we show that these errors can be minimized by making use of a water table as upper boundary condition derived from available hydraulic head measurements (model S1). If the study area is part of a supra-regional flow system - like the central Upper Rhine Graben is part of the whole Upper Rhine Graben - the in- and outflow across vertical boundaries need to be considered (model S2).

Description: This data set contains chemical and Mg isotope analyses of time-series creek water, subsurface flow (0-15cm and 15-150cm), vegetation, regolith, clay-sized fraction and exchangeable fraction of regolith from a catchment of the Black Forest, Germany. This dataset is a following work of “Uhlig, D., & von Blanckenburg, F. (2019)", in which major and trace elements concentrations and 87Sr/86Sr isotope data was reported on the same batch of samples. With the new Mg isotope analyses, we investigated the potential controlling factors on water Mg isotopic composition, and we found exchange reactions in our catchment are a primary control on water chemistry. To further interrogate this finding, a batch of adsorption and desorption experiments using soil samples from our study site were carried out. The adsorption and desorption experiment results are also included here. This combination of field research and lab experiments informs about processes fractionating Mg in the critical zone – with the role of the exchangeable pool highlighted as particularly important – and further verifies the potential of Mg isotopes as a tool in tracing continental weathering process. Samples are assigned with International Geo Sample Numbers (IGSN), a globally unique and persistent Identifier for physical samples.

Description: This is a synthetic dataset. It was created from the outputs of the glacial isostatic adjustment model VILMA (Klemann et al. 2008). It consists of realtive sea level (RSL) data on a global regular grid. The resolution is 256 x 512 points (Lat x Lon). The tomporal range is from 123 ka BP until present day. Time steps vary between 2.5 kyrs at the beginning and 0.5 kyrs towards the end. The data were created for a specific configuration of the GIA model: lithosphere thickness = 60 km, lithosphere viscosity = 1.0E31 Pa s, upper mantle thickness = 610 km, upper mantle viscosity = 1.0E20 Pa s, lower mantle thickness = 3,221 km, lower mantle viscosity = 1.0E21 Pa s. The RSL data are accompanied by a observation locations mask. This mask was used to identify those locations in the global RSL dataset where real observations are available. The dataset consists of realtive sea level (RSL) data on a global regular grid. The resolution is 256 x 512 points (Lat x Lon). The temporal range is from 123 ka BP until present day. Time steps vary between 2.5 kyrs at the beginning and 0.5 kyrs towards the end. The data were created for a specific configuration of the GIA model: lithosphere thickness = 60 km, lithosphere viscosity = 1.0E31 Pa s, upper mantle thickness = 610 km, upper mantle viscosity = 1.0E20 Pa s, lower mantle thickness = 3,221 km, lower mantle viscosity = 1.0E21 Pa s. The RSL data are accompanied by observation locations masks. These masks were used to mark those locations in the global RSL dataset where real-life observations are available in order to restrict usage of the synthetic data to those locations.

Description: Geophysical section of Dublin institute for Advanced studies is a publicly funded (government) academic research organization that develop new methods for studying the earth. In this project we are trying to develop new environmentally friendly ways to monitoring ground integrity. The idea is to use ground vibrations from natural and man-made sources, that already exist in everyday life for monitoring ground integrity. Here we would like to see if ground vibrations made by passing trains can be used to determine the integrity of the ground beneath the train track itself. This project involves the recording and analysis in detail the seismic vibrations generated by trains in order to better understand the proprieties of the waves propagating from the railway trough the shallow underground. Waveform data are available from the GEOFON data centre. This research emanates from PACIFIC - Passive seismic techniques for environmentally friendly and cost-effective mineral exploration - which has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No. 776622. We also acknowledge support from the European Research Council under grant No. 817803, FAULTSCAN.

Description: Geophysical section of Dublin institute for Advanced studies is a publicly funded (government) academic research organization that develop new methods for studying the earth. In this project we are trying to develop new environmentally friendly ways to monitoring ground integrity. The idea is to use ground vibrations from natural and man-made sources, that already exist in everyday life for monitoring ground integrity. Here we would like to see if ground vibrations made by passing trains can be used to determine the integrity of the ground beneath the train track itself. This project involves the recording and analysis in detail the seismic vibrations generated by trains in order to better understand the proprieties of the waves propagating from the railway trough the shallow underground. Waveform data are available from the GEOFON data centre. This research emanates from PACIFIC - Passive seismic techniques for environmentally friendly and cost-effective mineral exploration - which has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No. 776622. We also acknowledge support from the European Research Council under grant No. 817803, FAULTSCAN