Multi-Element Analysis and Geochemical Spatial Trends of Groundwater in Rural Northern New York

doi:10.3390/w2020217

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Water 2010, 2(2), 217-238; doi:10.3390/w2020217

Article

Multi-Element Analysis and Geochemical Spatial Trends of Groundwater in Rural Northern New York

Michael O’Connor^1,2, Matt Zabik^1,3, Carol Cady⁴, Brian Cousens⁵ and Jeffrey Chiarenzelli^1,*

¹ Geology Department, St. Lawrence University, 23 Romoda Drive, Canton, NY 13617, USA ² Friends of Deer Creek, 132 Main St., Nevada City, CA 95959, USA ³ Department of Geography, Miami University, 501 East High Street, Oxford, OH 45056, USA ⁴ Elberty Geospatial Laboratory, St. Lawrence University, 23 Romoda Drive, Canton, NY 13617, USA ⁵ Department of Earth Sciences, Carleton University, 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, Ontario, K1S 5B6, Canada

* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Received: 30 March 2010; in revised form: 20 May 2010 / Accepted: 20 May 2010 / Published: 28 May 2010

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Abstract: Samples from private wells (n = 169) throughout St. Lawrence County, NY were analyzed by ICP-MS multi-element techniques. St. Lawrence County spans three diverse bedrock terranes including Precambrian crystalline rocks of the Adirondack Lowlands (mostly paragneisses) and Highlands (mostly orthogneisses), as well as Paleozoic sedimentary rocks of the St. Lawrence Valley. An ArcGIS database was constructed and used to generate contour plots for elements across the county. Strontium isotopes and unique geochemical signatures were used to distinguish water from various geologic units. The results were consistent with a large (7,309 km²), sparsely populated (~110,000), rural region with diverse bedrock and glacial cover.

Keywords: geochemistry; groundwater; inductively coupled plasma—mass spectrometry; kriging interpolation; strontium isotopes; multi-element analysis

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MDPI and ACS Style

O’Connor, M.; Zabik, M.; Cady, C.; Cousens, B.; Chiarenzelli, J. Multi-Element Analysis and Geochemical Spatial Trends of Groundwater in Rural Northern New York. Water 2010, 2, 217-238.

AMA Style

O’Connor M., Zabik M., Cady C., Cousens B., Chiarenzelli J. Multi-Element Analysis and Geochemical Spatial Trends of Groundwater in Rural Northern New York. Water. 2010; 2(2):217-238.

Chicago/Turabian Style

O’Connor, Michael; Zabik, Matt; Cady, Carol; Cousens, Brian; Chiarenzelli, Jeffrey. 2010. "Multi-Element Analysis and Geochemical Spatial Trends of Groundwater in Rural Northern New York." Water 2, no. 2: 217-238.

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