Model of groundwater flow, gas migration, and reactive transport in the Virgin River Basin, SW Utah

Dates

Publication Date: 2021-02-22
Start Date: 2020-11-02
End Date: 2020-11-02

Citation

Plampin, M.R., Blondes, M.S., Sonnenthal, E.L., and Craddock, W.H., 2021, Model of groundwater flow, gas migration, and reactive transport in the Virgin River Basin, SW Utah: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P9ZSPA9D.

Summary

To better understand the possible risks posed to shallow groundwater resources by geologic carbon sequestration (GCS), a multi-scale numerical modeling approach was invoked using the TOUGHREACT code from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The code solves coupled equations representing conservation of mass and energy on a finite difference grid to simulate multiphase, multicomponent, non-isothermal heat and mass transport in porous media. Two different two-dimensional cross-section modeling domains were constructed to improve understanding of groundwater flow and contaminant transport processes at a field site in soutwestern Utah. The site represents a natural analogue for leakage from a GCS site because water with elevated concentrations [...]

Summary

To better understand the possible risks posed to shallow groundwater resources by geologic carbon sequestration (GCS), a multi-scale numerical modeling approach was invoked using the TOUGHREACT code from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The code solves coupled equations representing conservation of mass and energy on a finite difference grid to simulate multiphase, multicomponent, non-isothermal heat and mass transport in porous media. Two different two-dimensional cross-section modeling domains were constructed to improve understanding of groundwater flow and contaminant transport processes at a field site in soutwestern Utah. The site represents a natural analogue for leakage from a GCS site because water with elevated concentrations of salt and CO₂ are migrating upward into a shallow aquifer system. The first modeling domain was designed to improve understanding of long-term hydrological leakage and conservative transport processes at the regional scale, while the second was designed to investigate site-scale reactive transport processes that could occur if the leaking fluids, or those with higher carbon dioxide (CO₂) concentrations, were to interact with a potential source of contamination along their flow path toward the ground surface. Lead (Pb⁺²) was used as an example heavy metal contaminant and was incorporated into a region of iron oxide representing concretion zones that are common in the geographic area. Results indicate that the initial state of potential heavy metal contaminant (i.e., sorbed onto the surface of the iron oxide or in an oxide mineral assemblage as PbO, litharge), exerts strong control on the amount of contamination that may occur, and that precipitation readily sequesters mobilized Pb⁺². This USGS data release contains all of the input and output files for the simulations described in the associated journal article. Descriptions of the data in each subdirectory are given to facilitate understanding of this model archive. File descriptions are provided for select files to provide additional information that may be of use for understanding this model archive. Support is provided for correcting errors in the data release and clarification of the modeling conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey. Users are encouraged to review the complete journal article (See 'Related External Resources' section below) to understand the purpose, report construction, and limitations of this model.

Contacts

Point of Contact :: Michelle R Plampin
Originator :: Michelle R Plampin, Madalyn S Blondes, Eric L Sonnenthal, William H Craddock
Metadata Contact :: Eric A Morrissey
Publisher :: U.S. Geological Survey
USGS Mission Area :: Energy and Minerals
SDC Data Owner :: Geology, Energy & Minerals Science Center
Distributor :: U.S. Geological Survey - ScienceBase

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Product_10.5066P9ZSPA9D_METADATA.xml Original FGDC Metadata	View	18.45 KB	application/fgdc+xml
plampin2021_GSLThumbnail.png		12.41 MB	image/png
plampin2021_GSL.zip		401.13 MB	application/zip

Related External Resources

Type: Related Primary Publication

Plampin, M.R., Blondes, M.S., Sonnenthal, E.L., Craddock; W.H., 2021, Potential Pb+2 mobilization, transport, and sequestration in shallow aquifers impacted by multiphase CO2 leakage: a natural analogue study from the Virgin River Basin in Southwest Utah: Petroleum Geoscience, https://doi.org/10.1144/petgeo2020-109.	https://doi.org/10.1144/petgeo2020-109

Purpose

This groundwater model was created to examine possible multiphase flow and reactive transport processes that may occur in shallow aquifers if CO2 were to leak from a deep geologic sequestration site. A site in southwestern Utah was analyzed as a natural analogue in this study because water with moderately elevated salt and CO2 concentrations is upwelling into shallow aquifers at the site. A model was built to better understand the upwelling process, and then a hypothetical contamination source was incorporated in a smaller-scale reactive transport model. The development of the model input and output files included in this data release is documented in the article published in Petroleum Geoscience (See 'Related External Resources' section above).

Model of groundwater flow, gas migration, and reactive transport in the Virgin River Basin, SW Utah

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