Geology topics

Peter R. Jaffe

Publications and source records attributed to Peter R. Jaffe.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

USGS2016

Climate variability and extremes, interacting with nitrogen storage, amplify eutrophication risk

Despite 30 years of basin-wide nutrient-reduction efforts, severe hypoxia continues to be observed in the Chesapeake Bay. Here we demonstrate the critical influence of climate variability, interacting with accumulated nitrogen (N) over multidecades, on Susquehanna River dissolved nitrogen (DN) loads, known precursors of the hypoxia in the Bay. We used the process model LM3-TAN (Terrestrial and Aquatic Nitrogen), which is capable of capturing both seasonal and decadal-to-century changes in vegetation-soil-river N storage, and produced nine scenarios of DN-load distributions under different short-term scenarios of climate variability and extremes. We illustrate that after 1 to 3 yearlong dry spells, the likelihood of exceeding a threshold DN load (56 kt yr −1 ) increases by 40 to 65% due to flushing of N accumulated throughout the dry spells and altered microbial processes. Our analyses suggest that possible future increases in climate variability/extremes—specifically, high precipitation occurring after multiyear dry spells—could likely lead to high DN-load anomalies and hypoxia.

Chesapeake Bay↗

USGS2010

Simulating the volatilization of solvents in unsaturated soils during laboratory and field infiltration experiments

This paper describes laboratory and field experiments which were conducted to study the dynamics of trichloroethylene (TCE) as it volatilized from contaminated groundwater and diffused in the presence of infiltrating water through the unsaturated soil zone to the land surface. The field experiments were conducted at the Picatinny Arsenal, which is part of the United States Geological Survey Toxic Substances Hydrology Program. In both laboratory and field settings the gas and water phase concentrations of TCE were not in equilibrium during infiltration. Gas-water mass transfer rate constants were calibrated to the experimental data using a model in which the water phase was treated as two phases: a mobile water phase and an immobile water phase. The mass transfer limitations of a volatile organic compound between the gas and liquid phases were described explicitly in the model. In the laboratory experiment the porous medium was nonsorbing, and water infiltration rates ranged from 0.076 to 0.28 cm h −1 . In the field experiment the water infiltration rate was 0.34 cm h −1 , and sorption onto the soil matrix was significant. The laboratory-calibrated gas-water mass transfer rate constant is 3.3×10 −4 h −1 for an infiltration rate of 0.076 cm h −1 and 1.4×10 −3 h −1 for an infiltration rate of 0.28 cm h −1 . The overall mass transfer rate coefficients, incorporating the contribution of mass transfer between mobile and immobile water phases and the variation of interfacial area with moisture content, range from 3×10 −4 h −1 to 1×10 −2 h −1 . A power law model relates the gas-water mass transfer rate constant to the infiltration rate and the fraction of the water phase which is mobile. It was found that the results from the laboratory experiments could not be extrapolated to the field. In order to simulate the field experiment the very slow desorption of TCE from the soil matrix was incorporated into the mathematical model. When desorption from the soil matrix was added to the model, the calibrated gas-water mass transfer rate constant is 2 orders of magnitude lower than that predicted using the power law model developed for the nonsorbing laboratory soil.

Water Resources Research↗

USGS1992

Sampling vadose-zone water for a volatile organic compound at Picatinny Arsenal, New Jersey

A new method of collecting samples of unsaturated-zone water for quantitative analysis for a volatile organic compound, trichloroethene (TCE), was compared to three other, previously described sampling methodologies in the laboratory and in the field. In the laboratory, prepared water samples containing TCE in a known concentration (20 µg/L) were sampled repeatedly by using each of the four methods to quantify method precision and accuracy. To compare the four methods in the field, unsaturated-zone water above a TCE-contaminated water-table aquifer was transferred from a depth of 2 m to land surface with 0.15-m-long suction lysimeters attached to 1.85-m lengths of stainless-steel tubing. Statistical analyses of the laboratory and field data indicate that the new method, which involves collecting the water samples in gas-tight glass syringes, is superior to the other three methods for the quantitative sampling and analysis of TCE on the basis of its high precision and accuracy and ease of use. This method was used to collect additional samples from the field site to quantify the spatial variability of TCE concentrations in the unsaturated-zone water. Results of analysis of variance of the data indicate that the spatial concentration variability is important, and that differences in TCE concentration are statistically significant for horizontal distances less than 3.6 m.

New Jersey↗

USGS1992

Hydraulic conductivity of landfill liners containing benzyltriethylammonium-bentonite

Varying weight percentages of an Ottawa sand, benzyltriethylammonium-bentonite (BTEA-clay), Wyoming bentonite (Na-clay), and water were mixed uniformly and compacted to simulate sand-and-clay liners for waste-disposal facilities. The hydraulic conductivities of the compacted soil cores were measured in triplicate. The hydraulic conductivities of cores containing 92 percent sand and 8 percent BTEA-clay were about of 10-4 cm/s. The hydraulic conductivities of cores containing 92 percent sand and 8 percent Na-clay and of cores containing 88 percent sand, 8 percent Na-clay, and 4 percent BTEA-clay were about 10-8 cm/s.

Conference Paper↗