SERIES TEMPORALES DE TRITIO PARA LA DETERMINACIÓN DE LA EDAD APARENTE DEL AGUA SUBTERRÁNEA EN ARGENTINA

BASALDUA, ALEJANDRO; ALCARAZ, EMILIANO; MARTINEZ, DANIEL E.; QUIROZ LONDOÑO, O.MAURICIO; DAPEÑA, CRISTINA; IBARRA, EDUARDO D.

Actas del XI Congreso Argentino de Hidrogeología: agua subterránea, el agua que no se ve

Ediuns

Lugar: Bahia Blanca; Año: 2022; p. 71 - 78

Tritium is an ideal tracer for groundwater and surface dating and tracking. The knowledge of the history of tritium in precipitation is the key link for the calculation of groundwater tritium age. However, records of tritium in precipitation are usually sparse and discontinuous, especially in regions like South America. To solve this problem, different reconstruction methods of the tritium input function have been analyzed and compared. Clustering of stations by regions and the correlation with the complete and continuous data recorded in Kaitoke (New Zealand), proved to be the most effective approach, having low relative errors and a much more extended coverage in time when compared to other methods. Thus, tritium time series for five different regions of Argentina were obtained. These curves can be used as representative tritium input curves in future studies for these regions. The results obtained also allow a quick qualitative analysis of groundwater ages in these areas, based on their current or past tritium concentrations