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Summary Tritium/helium-3 (3H/3He) and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) were investigated as environmental tracers in ground water from Jeju Island (Republic of Korea), a basaltic volcanic island. Ground-water mixing was evaluated by comparing 3H and CFC-12 concentrations with lumped-parameter dispersion models, which distinguished old water recharged before the 1950s with negligible 3H and CFC-12 from younger water. Low 3H levels in a considerable number of samples cannot be explained by the mixing models, and were interpreted as binary mixing of old and younger water; a process also identified in alkalinity and pH of ground water. The ground-water CFC-12 age is much older in water from wells completed in confined zones...
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Dissolved helium and bromide tracers were used to evaluate trapped gas during an infiltration pond experiment. Dissolved helium preferentially partitioned into trapped gas bubbles, or other pore air, because of its low solubility in water. This produced observed helium retardation factors of as much as 12 relative to bromide. Numerical simulations of helium breakthrough with both equilibrium and kinetically limited advection/dispersion/retardation did not match observed helium concentrations. However, better fits were obtained by including a decay term representing the diffusive loss of helium through interconnected, gas-filled pores. Calculations indicate that 7% to more than 26% of the porosity beneath the pond...
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