Isotopes are variants of atoms of a particular chemical element, which have differing numbers of neutrons.

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Natural isotopes Synthetic isotopes

 1H

is the most common hydrogen isotope with an abundance of more than 99.98%. Deuterium comprises 0.0026 0.0184% (by population, not by mass). Water enriched in molecules that include deuterium instead of normal hydrogen is called heavy water. Deuterium is not radioactive, and does not represent a significant toxicity hazard.

Heavy water is used as a neutron moderator and coolant for nuclear reactors. Deuterium is also a potential fuel for commercial nuclear fusion.

Stable oxygen and hydrogen isotopes have been used in ground water studies to investigate recharge, mixing, ground water/surface water interaction, advective-diffusive transport, paleohydrogeologic interactions and to estimate ground water ages.

As issues of source water protection of drinking water supplies have come to the forefront, the methodology to effectively manage semi-confined aquifers is still unclear. Commonly, the area around the wellhead is considered the most risk sensitive area, but in semi-confined settings the most sensitive areas may be located some distance away from the wellhead.

A synthetic test case was developed to determine the suitability of the technique for identifying localized areas of recharge to a wellhead in aquifers where evidence of modern water infiltration exists. Results of the model based on the synthetic test case indicate that the technique presented is capable of identifying localized areas of recharge contributing to a wellhead, in a semi-confined aquifer setting, with only a limited amount of required data.

Confined aquifers are typically less susceptible to anthropogenic contamination than unconfined aquifers; however, their vulnerability should not be ignored due to the fact that confined aquifers are not always perfectly isolated systems. Aquitard windows, regions of focused recharge through an aquitard, can provide a direct conduit for potential contaminants from anthropogenic sources and elevated risk in otherwise confined hydrogeologic settings.

The model adequately represents experimental observations of isotope profiles during evaporation from saturated or unsaturated soils, under both nonisothermal and non-steady conditions. Groundwater replenishment occurs by both indirect (or localized) recharge through streambeds, depressions, etc., and direct (or local) recharge through the surfacial materials. It is this latter form of recharge which often leads to a difference in the isotopic signature between rainfall and the unconfined groundwater.

To obtain hydrologic information from the isotopic composition of groundwater, the processes occurring in the unsaturated zone which .lead to changes in isotopic composition must be taken into account.

EVAPORATION FROM SATURATED SOILS

For the existence of a steady-state concentration gradient near the surface, equality of the diffusive and convective fluxes implies that:

D*dR/dz = E(R - Rre~)

where D* is the effective diffusivity of the isotope in the pore water and E is the evaporation rate. Rre s is the isotope ratio of the water entering the column from below

The solution of this differential equation gives: R - Rros + (R0 - Rres)exp( - z / z l ) where: zl = D*/E and D* has been assumed constant, which will be the case provided only that the pore space is homogeneous with depth.

Isotope concentrations are usually expressed as relative deviations from the concentration of a standard water, usually Standard Mean Ocean Water (SMOW)_multiplied by 1000

The past two decades has seen considerable progress in the use of oxygen-18 and deuterium for tracing water movement in the unsaturated zone. The stable isotopic species of water have been used to investigate the processes of infiltration, evaporation and mixing, and to make quantitative estimates of groundwater recharge and evaporation rates. A principal advantage of using stable isotopic tracers to determine water movement is the limited variability of the effective diffusivities with varying water content, compared to the marked variation of the soil water .

Temperature effects on soil water profiles and fluxes can be significant, but appear to have little effect on isotope profiles. Further experimental clarification of the interaction of the isotope profiles with temperature gradients is required in order to obtain greater precision in interpreting unsaturated zone profiles; in particular, this is necessary for accurate estimation of evaporation rates.

Sukhija and Shah (1976) found that 3H-peak displacement method gave drainage estimates 20 - 40% higher than the 3H mass balance method, at field sites in northern India. This suggests either: (a) that 3H fallout has consistently been overestimated, (b) that 3H is being lost from the soil profiles, or (c) that too much water is being counted in the peakdisplacement method. The latter could be due to either (i)the presence of immobile water, or (ii) including water in the plant root zone, which may not become drainage.

At recharge rates greater than approximately 20 mm yr- the results of the 3H mass-balance, peak-displacement and chloride mass-balance studies, all appear to agree within 30 - 50%. The results of peak-displacement methods using artificial 3H tagging also compare well with those of the chloride mass-balance method.

Of all the water on Earth, only 2.5 per cent is freshwater, the rest is salty. Of this freshwater, most is frozen in icecaps present as soil moisture, or inaccessible in deep underground aquifers, leaving less than 1 per cent accessible for use. It is estimated that more than one third of the global food production is based on irrigation, a significant portion of which may rely of unsustainable groundwater sources. Isotope hydrology is a nuclear technique that uses both stable and radioactive environmental isotopes to trace the movements of water in the hydrological cycle.

Isotopes can be used to investigate underground sources of water to determine their source, how they are recharged, whether they are at risk of saltwater intrusion or pollution, and whether they can be used in a sustainable manner. During evaporation and condensation, the concentration of oxygen and hydrogen isotopes in a water molecule undergoes small changes. When water from the ocean evaporates, the heavier isotopes will condense first and fall as rain before the lighter ones.

At each stage of the hydrological cycle, there is a small change registered by a difference in the concentration of oxygen and hydrogen isotopes in water that is as unique as a fingerprint. The isotopes of pollutants, such as trace metals, or chemical compounds dissolved in water, also offer clues about its origin. The picture that emerges allows hydrologists to map groundwater sources and climatologists to better assemble climate history, setting signposts for the impact of future events as climate change occurs.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) supports the use of isotope hydrology to improve knowledge of water resources. Each year, the IAEA allocates nearly US $3 million to its water resource program. The Agency has also invested about US $30 million in 150 projects in 60 countries to improve water management using isotope hydrology and, in the process, has trained hundreds of young scientists.

The residence time of groundwater in an aquifer or the groundwater age is an important parameter in any palaeo-hydrologic and geo-hydraulic study. Water-rock interactions occur during groundwater recharge within days/ weeks and during flow in the aquifer within years to even millions of years. Isotope hydrological studies give at least an idea about approximate ages of the various ground waters.

Dating by radioactive decay : The physical process of radioactive decay is the basis of the age determination of groundwater. Radioactive decay of a certain nuclide is completely independent of any environmental parameter such as pressure, temperature, pH or chemical bonds, and only depends upon a characteristic degree of instability, expressed into a half-life. There are, however, physical processes and geochemical reactions which secondarily change the specific activity (= activity per L or per g).

 3H

is known as tritium and contains one proton and two neutrons in its nucleus. It is radioactive, decaying into helium-3 through betadecay with a half-life of 12.32 years. Small amounts of tritium occur naturally because of the interaction of cosmic rays with atmospheric gases. Dating by 3H determines the residence time of shallow groundwater and of spring water in fissured and fractured rocks less than about 150 years. The classical 3H method (Libby 1953) was based on the environmental cosmogenic 3H activity in rain water.

Other applications of 3H is studying lake dynamics, and the estimation of groundwater recharge rates in humid, arid and semi-arid regions. In regions with low precipitation samples from dug wells offer a unique possibility to estimate upper limits of the groundwater recharge.

J. van den Akker, C. T. Simmons, J. L. HutsonThe use of stable isotopes, deuterium and oxygen - 18 to derive evaporation from flood irrigation on the basis of pan evaporation techniques Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering. Submitted July 5, 2010; accepted February 23, 2011; posted ahead of print March 4, 2011. doi:10.1061/(ASCE)IR.1943-4774.0000361 Stephanie S. Ivey, M.ASCE1; Randall W. Gentry, M.ASCE2; Dan Larsen3; and Jerry Anderson, F.ASCE4, Inverse Application of Age-Distribution Modeling. Using Environmental Tracers 3H/3He( 1002 / JOURNAL OF HYDROLOGIC ENGINEERING ASCE / NOVEMBER 2008) Downloaded 13 Sep 2011 to 210.212.97.131. Redistribution subject to ASCE license or copyright. Visit http://www.ascelibrary.org Maloszewski, P. and Zuber, A., 1993. Principles and practice of calibration and validation ofmathematical models for the interpretation of environmental tracer in aquifers. Advances in Water Res., 16: 173-190. Libby, W.F., 1953. The potential usefulness of natural tritium. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci., 39: 245-247.

Beekman, H.E., Gieske, A. and Selaolo, E.T., 1996. GRES groundwater recharge studies in Botswana (1987 - 1996). Botswana J. Earth Sci. III: l- 17. Sukhija, B.S. and Shah, C.R., 1976. Conformity of groundwater recharge rate by tritium method and mathematical modelling. J. Hydrol., 30: 167-78. Stute, M. and Deak, M., 1989. Environmental isotopic study (14C, 13C, 0, D, noble gases) on deep groundwater circulation systems in Hungary with reference to paleoclimate. Radiocarbon, 3 1 (3): 902-9 18. Hubner, H., Kowski, P., Hermichen, W.-D., Richter, W. and Schutze, H., 1979. Regional and temporal variations of deuterium in the precipitation and atmospheric moisture of Central Europe. In: Isotope Hydrology 1978, IAEA, Vienna, Vol. 1: 289-305.

Zuber, A., 1986. Chapter 1. Mathematical models for the interpretation of environmental radioisotopes in groundwater systems. In: P. Fritz and J. Ch. Fontes (Editors), Handbook of Environmental Isotope Geochemistry Vol. 2, Elsevier, Amsterdam: l-59. IAEA BULLETIN-VOL.19, NO.1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isotopes_of_hydrogen https://www.llnl.gov/str/Davisson.html http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11341004