Understanding the evolution of oil sands tailings deposits using tritium-helium dating and noble gases

被引:0
作者
Utting, Nicholas [1 ]
Birks, Jean S. [2 ]
Darrah, Thomas H. [3 ,4 ]
机构
[1] Nat Resources Canada, CanmetENERGY, 1 Oil Patch Dr, Devon, AB T9G 1A8, Canada
[2] InnoTech Alberta, 3608 33 St NW, Calgary, AB T2L 2A6, Canada
[3] Ohio State Univ, Sch Earth Sci, Div Solid Earth Dynam & Water Climate & Environm, Columbus, OH 43210 USA
[4] Ohio State Univ, Global Water Inst, Columbus, OH 43210 USA
关键词
3H-3He dating; Oil sands tailings; 3He; 3H; Noble gas; Tritium-helium dating; GROUNDWATER; ISOTOPE; WATER; METHANE; LAKES; MECHANISMS; ALBERTA; AGES; AREA; FLOW;
D O I
10.1016/j.apgeochem.2022.105533
中图分类号
P3 [地球物理学]; P59 [地球化学];
学科分类号
0708 ; 070902 ;
摘要
Oil sands tailings are deposited in tailings ponds to allow fines to settle over time. Knowledge of the age of tailings allows for an improved determination of the settling rates of tailings as well as an understanding of geochemical processes within the tailings ponds. In this study we tested the use of the tritium (3H) - helium (3He) age dating method to date pore water of oil sands tailings deposits. This method exploits the decay of naturally occurring 3H and its radioactive daughter product 3He to calculate the ages of tailings. Samples were collected from four oil sands tailings ponds. Many of the samples have noble gas concentrations that were below the air equilibrated water concentrations and some samples were supersaturated in methane (CH4). The concentrations are interpreted to be lower than expected as a result of stripping by the production of CH4. When samples su-persaturated in CH4 are excluded, the calculated ages of Pond A samples ranged from 1.5 +/- 0.1 to 32.0 +/- 0.9 years, Pond B ranged from 5.3 +/- 0.3 to 23.0 +/- 0.8 years, Pond C ranged from 0 +/- 0 to 6.5 +/- 0.3 years, and Pond D ranged from 16.6 +/- 0.6 to 27.3 +/- 0.8. The tailings samples obtained from Pond A, Pond C and Pond D show a general trend of increasing tailings age with depth.
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页数:11
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