Hydrogeochemical features of groundwater resources in Tabriz plain, northwest of Iran

Abstract The present study seeks to evaluate the hydrogeochemistry of Tabriz plain in NW Iran, through major ion chemistry and their spatial variations. In order to accomplish these, groundwater sampling from 30 shallow and deep wells in the plain were carried out in July 2012. The water samples were analyzed for various physicochemical parameters such as pH, EC, Na+, Ca2+, K+, Mg2+, Cl−, CO32−, HCO3−, SO42− and NO3−. Chadha’s diagram demonstrates that most of the groundwaters belonged to the Na–Cl and mixed Ca–Mg–Cl hydrochemical facies. The concentrations of some major ions in groundwater are above the permissible limit for drinking and domestic purposes except for a few locations. The results of saturation index computation show that dissolution of gypsum, anhydrite, halite and silicate minerals occurs frequently across the study area, whereas the groundwater is supersaturated with regard to calcite and dolomite. Cross-plots show that weathering and dissolution of different rocks and minerals, ion exchange, reverse ion exchange and anthropogenic activities, especially agricultural activities, are effective in hydrogeochemistry of the study area.

[1]  B. B. Nayak,et al.  Multivariate statistical techniques for the evaluation of spatial and temporal variations in water quality of the Mahanadi river–estuarine system (India) – a case study , 2006, Environmental geochemistry and health.

[2]  A. A. Mogaddam,et al.  Assessment of groundwater quality and its suitability for drinking and agricultural uses in the Oshnavieh area, northwest of Iran. , 2010 .

[3]  B R Raghavan,et al.  The utility of multivariate statistical techniques in hydrogeochemical studies: an example from Karnataka, India. , 2002, Water research.

[4]  E. Tziritis,et al.  Assessing the hydrogeochemistry and water quality of the Aji-Chay River, northwest of Iran , 2016, Environmental Earth Sciences.

[5]  S. Pathmarajah,et al.  Characterization of Irrigation Water Quality of Chunnakam Aquifer in Jaffna Peninsula , 2012 .

[6]  E. Tziritis,et al.  The use of hydrogeochemical analyses and multivariate statistics for the characterization of groundwater resources in a complex aquifer system. A case study in Amyros River basin, Thessaly, central Greece , 2016, Environmental Earth Sciences.

[7]  L. Elango,et al.  Identification and evolution of hydrogeochemical processes in the groundwater environment in an area of the Palar and Cheyyar River Basins, Southern India , 2003 .

[8]  K. Loganathan,et al.  Assessment of groundwater quality for irrigation use in Alathur Block, Perambalur District, Tamilnadu, South India , 2013, Applied Water Science.

[9]  B. Kortatsi.  Hydrochemical framework of groundwater in the Ankobra Basin, Ghana , 2007 .

[10]  Dinesh Mohan,et al.  Multivariate statistical techniques for the evaluation of spatial and temporal variations in water quality of Gomti River (India)--a case study. , 2004, Water research.

[11]  Rahim Barzegar,et al.  Combining the advantages of neural networks using the concept of committee machine in the groundwater salinity prediction , 2016, Modeling Earth Systems and Environment.

[12]  J. Adamowski,et al.  Application of wavelet-artificial intelligence hybrid models for water quality prediction: a case study in Aji-Chay River, Iran , 2016, Stochastic Environmental Research and Risk Assessment.

[13]  S. Hinkle,et al.  Geological Survey Arsenic in Ground Water of the Willamette Basin , Oregon , 1996 .

[14]  C. Nichol,et al.  Hydrogeochemical and isotopic constraints on the origins of dryland salinity, Murray Basin, Victoria, Australia , 2004 .

[15]  Jan Adamowski,et al.  Multi-step water quality forecasting using a boosting ensemble multi-wavelet extreme learning machine model , 2018, Stochastic Environmental Research and Risk Assessment.

[16]  Asghar Asghari Moghaddam,et al.  A supervised committee machine artificial intelligent for improving DRASTIC method to assess groundwater contamination risk: a case study from Tabriz plain aquifer, Iran , 2016, Stochastic Environmental Research and Risk Assessment.

[17]  Peiyue Li,et al.  Assessment of groundwater quality for irrigation purposes and identification of hydrogeochemical evolution mechanisms in Pengyang County, China , 2013, Environmental Earth Sciences.

[18]  J. Adamowski,et al.  Characterization of hydrogeologic properties of the Tabriz plain multilayer aquifer system, NW Iran , 2016, Arabian Journal of Geosciences.

[19]  K. Elangovan,et al.  Hydrochemical characteristics and groundwater quality assessment in Tirupur Region, Coimbatore District, Tamil Nadu, India , 2009 .

[20]  S. K. Nag,et al.  Application of multivariate statistical analysis concepts for assessment of hydrogeochemistry of groundwater—a study in Suri I and II blocks of Birbhum District, West Bengal, India , 2017, Applied Water Science.

[21]  B. Kortatsi,et al.  The Hydrochemistry of Groundwater in Some Communities in the Ayensu River Basin in the Central Region of Ghana , 2014 .

[22]  B. Shankar,et al.  Impact of industrialization on groundwater quality – a case study of Peenya industrial area, Bangalore, India , 2008, Environmental monitoring and assessment.

[23]  M. Meybeck.  Global chemical weathering of surficial rocks estimated from river dissolved loads , 1987 .

[24]  J. J. Morgan,et al.  Aquatic Chemistry: Chemical Equilibria and Rates in Natural Waters , 1970 .

[25]  R. Gibbs.  Mechanisms Controlling World Water Chemistry , 1970, Science.

[26]  Cong-Qiang Liu,et al.  Water geochemistry controlled by carbonate dissolution: a study of the river waters draining karst-dominated terrain, Guizhou Province, China , 2004 .

[27]  J. W. Lloyd,et al.  Natural inorganic hydrochemistry in relation to ground water , 1985 .

[28]  Lazhar Belkhiri,et al.  Geochemical evolution of groundwater in an alluvial aquifer: Case of El Eulma aquifer, East Algeria , 2012 .

[29]  Rachida Bouhlila,et al.  Geochemistry and quality assessment of groundwater using graphical and multivariate statistical methods. A case study: Grombalia phreatic aquifer (Northeastern Tunisia) , 2013, Arabian Journal of Geosciences.

[30]  N. S. Rao.  Nitrate pollution and its distribution in the groundwater of Srikakulam district, Andhra Pradesh, India , 2006 .

[31]  D. Chadha.  A proposed new diagram for geochemical classification of natural waters and interpretation of chemical data , 1999 .

[32]  H. B. Dhia,et al.  Groundwater origins and mixing pattern in the multilayer aquifer system of the Gafsa-south mining district: a chemical and isotopic approach , 2011 .

[33]  E. Tziritis,et al.  Assessing the hydrogeochemistry of groundwaters in ophiolite areas of Euboea Island, Greece, using multivariate statistical methods , 2015 .

[34]  D. Sarma,et al.  Fluoride Concentrations in Ground Waters of Visakhapatnam, India , 1997, Bulletin of environmental contamination and toxicology.

[35]  S. Barth.  Stable isotope geochemistry of sediment-hosted groundwater from a Late Paleozoic–Early Mesozoic section in central Europe , 2000 .

[36]  A. E. Greenberg,et al.  Standard methods for the examination of water and wastewater : supplement to the sixteenth edition , 1988 .

[37]  D. L. Parkhurst,et al.  User's guide to PHREEQC (Version 2)-a computer program for speciation, batch-reaction, one-dimensional transport, and inverse geochemical calculations , 1999 .

[38]  M. K. Yusoff,et al.  A pristine environment and water quality in perspective: Maliau Basin, Borneo's mysterious world , 2009 .

[39]  L. Elango,et al.  Geochemical processes controlling the groundwater quality in lower Palar river basin, southern India , 2013, Journal of Earth System Science.

[40]  Asghar Asghari Moghaddam,et al.  Hydrogeologic characteristics of the alluvial tuff aquifer of northern Sahand Mountain slopes, Tabriz, Iran , 2006 .

[41]  R. Stallard,et al.  Geochemistry of the Amazon: 2. The influence of geology and weathering environment on the dissolved load , 1983 .

[42]  A. Nagaraju,et al.  Statistical Analysis of the Hydrogeochemical Evolution of Groundwater in the Rangampeta area, Chittoor District, Andhra Pradesh, South India , 2014 .

[43]  P. Domenico,et al.  Physical and chemical hydrogeology , 1990 .

[44]  Rahim Barzegar,et al.  Assessment of heavy metals concentrations with emphasis on arsenic in the Tabriz plain aquifers, Iran , 2015, Environmental Earth Sciences.

[45]  Y. Hamed,et al.  Geochemical and isotopic composition of groundwater in the Complex Terminal aquifer in southwestern Tunisia, with emphasis on the mixing by vertical leakage , 2011 .

[46]  M. Jalali.  Geochemistry characterization of groundwater in an agricultural area of Razan, Hamadan, Iran , 2009 .

[47]  B. Dupré,et al.  Global silicate weathering and CO2 consumption rates deduced from the chemistry of large rivers , 1999 .

[48]  J. Lloyd,et al.  Natural Inorganic Hydrochemistry in Relation to Groundwater: An Introduction , 1985 .

[49]  M. Currell,et al.  Major-ion chemistry, δ13C and 87Sr/86Sr as indicators of hydrochemical evolution and sources of salinity in groundwater in the Yuncheng Basin, China , 2011 .