Krypton-81 dating constrains timing of deep groundwater flow activation

Abstract

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2022. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Geophysical Research Letters 49(11), (2022): e2021GL097618, https://doi.org/10.1029/2021GL097618.Krypton-81 dating provides new insights into the timing, mechanisms, and extent of meteoric flushing versus retention of saline fluids in the subsurface in response to changes in geologic and/or climatic forcings over 50 ka to 1.2 Ma year timescales. Remnant Paleozoic seawater-derived brines associated with evaporites in the Paradox Basin, Colorado Plateau, are beyond the 81Kr dating range (>1.2 Ma) and have likely been preserved due to negative fluid buoyancy and low permeability. 81Kr dating of formation waters above the evaporites indicates topographically-driven meteoric recharge and salt dissolution since the Late Pleistocene (0.03–0.8 Ma). Formation waters below the evaporites (up to 3 km depth), in basal aquifers, contain relatively young meteoric water components (0.4–1.1 Ma based on 81Kr) that partially flushed remnant brines and dissolved evaporites. We demonstrate that recent, rapid denudation of the Colorado Plateau (<4–10 Ma) activated deep, basinal-scale flow systems as recorded in 81Kr groundwater age distributions.Funding for this research was provided by the W.M. Keck Foundation, CIFAR Earth 4D Subsurface Science and Exploration program, NSF EAR (#2120733), National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2016YFA0302200), and National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants No. 41727901). McIntosh and Ballentine are fellows of the CIFAR Earth4D Subsurface Science and Exploration program