Publications

Acidic, metal-rich waters produced by the oxidative weathering and resulting leaching of major and trace elements from pyritic rocks can adversely affect water quality in receiving streams and riparian ecosystems. Five study areas in the southern Rocky Mountains with naturally acidic waters associated with porphyry mineralization were studied to document variations in water chemistry and...

Rainfall events cause both increases and decreases in acid and metals concentrations and their loadings from mine wastes, and unmined mineralized areas, into receiving streams based on data from 3 mines sites in the United States and other sites outside the US. Gradual increases in concentrations occur during long dry spells and sudden large increases are observed during the rising limb...

To better understand large-scale interactions between fresh and saline groundwater beneath an Atlantic coastal estuary, an offshore drilling and sampling study was performed in a large barrier-bounded lagoon, Chincoteague Bay, Maryland, USA. Groundwater that was significantly fresher than overlying bay water was found in shallow plumes up to 8 m thick extending more than 1700 m offshore

We measured the Cu isotopic composition of primary minerals and stream water affected by acid mine drainage in a mineralized watershed (Colorado, USA). The δ65Cu values (based on 65Cu/63Cu) of enargite (δ65Cu = −0.01 ± 0.10‰; 2σ) and chalcopyrite (δ65Cu = 0.16 ± 0.10‰) are within the range of reported values for terrestrial primary Cu sulfides (−1‰ ‰Δaq-mino=-0.57±0.14‰, where mino...

Ground water systems dominated by iron‐ or sulfate‐reducing conditions may be distinguished by observing concentrations of dissolved iron (Fe2+) and sulfide (sum of H2S, HS−, and S= species and denoted here as “H2S”). This approach is based on the observation that concentrations of Fe2+ and H2S in ground water systems tend to be inversely related according to a hyperbolic function. That...

The time course photodegradation of the Nordic aquatic fulvic and humic acids and Suwannee River XAD-4 acids subjected to UV irradiation with an unfiltered medium pressure mercury lamp was studied by liquid-state 13C nuclear magnetic resonance. Photodecarboxylation was a significant pathway in all cases. Decreases in ketone, aromatic, and O-alkyl carbons were observed throughout the...

An in situ experiment was performed in a shallow alluvial aquifer in Maryland to quantify the fractionation of stable isotopes in perchlorate (Cl and O) and nitrate (N and O) during biodegradation. An emulsified soybean oil substrate that was previously injected into this aquifer provided the electron donor necessary for biological perchlorate reduction and denitrification. During the...

Soil–plant–atmosphere interactions strongly influence water movement in desert unsaturated zones, but little is known about how such interactions affect atmospheric release of subsurface water-borne contaminants. This 2-yr study, performed at the U.S. Geological Survey's Amargosa Desert Research Site in southern Nevada, quantified the magnitude and spatiotemporal variability of tritium...

A limited seismic investigation of Ball Mountain Dam, an earthen dam near Jamaica, Vermont, was conducted using multiple seismic methods including multi‐channel analysis of surface waves (MASW), refraction tomography, and vertical seismic profiling (VSP). The refraction and MASW data were efficiently collected in one survey using a towed land streamer containing vertical‐displacement...

We investigate the use of frequency‐domain electromagnetic (FDEM) and electrical resistivity (ER) surveys for rapid and detailed characterization of the direction of lake‐aquifer fluxes and the configuration of salt plumes generated from saline lakes. This methodology was developed and applied at several lakes in the Nebraska Sand Hills, Nebraska, in an area with both freshwater and...

Effective remediation requires an understanding of the relative contributions of metals from all sources in a catchment, and that understanding must be based on a spatially detailed quantification of metal loading. A traditional approach to quantifying metal loading has been to measure discharge and chemistry at a catchment outlet. This approach can quantify annual loading and the...

If you were asked to speculate about the form extra-terrestrial life on Mars might take, which geomicrobial phenomenon might you select as a model system, assuming that life on Mars would be ‘primitive’? Give your reasons. At the end of my senior year at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1968, I took Professor Ehrlich's final for his Geomicrobiology course. The above question beckoned...