Modeling of groundwater processes in a karstic aquifer of Sierra Madre Oriental, Mexico Academic Article in Scopus uri icon

abstract

  • © 2018 Elsevier Ltd The Sierra Madre Oriental (SMO) is composed of ranges with important regional geological structures in highly fractured carbonate rocks (Abra Formation), which facilitate the recharge of aquifers. At the regional scale, recharge occurs in the western SMO and locally, in ranges such as Palmillas, La Colmena and Abra, while the regional discharge is to the east in the Huasteca zone. Intermountain valleys, such as El Salto, are located near the regional discharge zone. Three end members were identified in these regions, one related to local flow, another to intermediate and a third to regional flow. These flows define ternary mixing processes in groundwater. In this paper, the evolution of groundwater is studied, which is important for learning the system performance and hydrogeochemical processes through VISHMOD (Virtual Samples in Hydrochemical Modeling) methodology. The mixing model for the intermountain valleys indicates that many recharges occur, for which local flow contributes 68.3%, intermediate flow 12.3% and regional flow 19.4%. The inverse modeling shows that the water-rock interaction, precipitation and/or dissolution of calcite, gypsum and dolomite are the main processes occurring in the aquifer system of the intermountain valleys.

publication date

  • August 1, 2018