Chemical composition of ground water in the Yucca Mountain area, Nevada, 1971-84

Fifteen wells in the Yucca Mountain area of southern Nevada have been sampled for chemical analysis. Samples were obtained by pumping water from the entire well bore (composite sample), and, in three instances, by pumping from one or more isolated intervals within a well bore. Sodium is the most abundant cation , and biocarbonate is the most abundant anion in all water samples. Samples from the Paleozoic carbonate aquifer penetrated by well UE-25p 1 contain higher relative concentrations of calcium and magnesium than samples from overlying volcanic tuffs. Values of the stable isotope concentrations of oxygen and hydrogen are relatively negative (light) and have deuterium excess values ranging from +5 to +10. The distribution of uncorrected radiocarbon ages of tuffaceous groundwater from samples within one kilometer of the exploratory block ranges from 12,000 to 18,500 years before present. Variation in the inorganic, stable, and radioactive isotope composition of samples indicates a significant degree of lateral and vertical chemical inhomogeneity in groundwater of the Yucca Mountain area. (USGS)