Chemical Hydrogeology Syllabus


Prerequisites:

Physical Geology (GEO 401; 303; 312k) and basic chemistry (CH 301 and 302, or equivalent) are required.  Hydrogeology (GEO 382C, 376K, 346C or equivalent) is recommended.

Graduate & Undergraduate Credit:

The two sections of this course meet together for lectures and labs, and are assigned the same homework problems, but each group is graded and evaluated separately.  Exams will contain extra questions for the graduate students only.  Graduate students will additionally be required to complete 1 short writing assignment, to be announced.

Graduate Students
(GEO 387C)
  Undergrad Students
(GEO 376M)
 
Final Project 30% Final Project: 25%
Midterm Exam 1: 25% Midterm Exam 1: 25%
Midterm Exam 2: 15% Midterm Exam 2: 15%
Problem Sets 20% Problem Sets 25%
Recitation 5% Recitation 5%
Spread Sheet Model 5% Spread Sheet 5%

Meeting Times:

There are two lecture periods of 1.5 hours each, and a 2.0 hour recitation period. During the lecture, the basic theoretical framework will be presented, with a few examples. During the recitation period (required for undergraduate students!), concepts and issues specific to the homework assignment will be covered, and additional problems will be assigned and worked in class.

Required Textbook:

The textbook is Appelo and Postma, (2005)  Geochemistry, Groundwater, and Pollution, 2nd Ed.This will be supplemented with excerpts from other texts, especially Drever, J.I., (1996) The Geochemistry of Natural Waters (3rd ed), Snoeyink, V.L. and Jenkins, D. Water Chemistry, Stumm, W and Morgan, J.  (1994) Aquatic Chemistry 3rd Ed., and Garrels and Christ (1965) Solutions, Minerals, and Equilibria.  If you can find a copy of any of these additional texts they will be valuable references for your future work in chemical hydrogeology.  In addition, there will be a few journal articles assigned throughout the course to complement the lectures.

Homework Assignments:

There will be several problem sets assigned from the primary and secondary texts. The assignments are long, but most students have told me that the only way they learned the material (and pass the exams) was by working lots of problems. You can work these problems alone, or in groups, but you are responsible for turning in your own final product. If you let this slide, though, or rely on others in your group to do the problems, it is virtually impossible to pass the midterm exams.

Computer Models

Each student will be given access to public domain executable versions of PHREEQC, the primary geochemical model used by the U.S. Geological Survey Water Resources Division. The program files are available directly from the USGS source site (http://wwwbrr.cr.usgs.gov/projects/GWC_coupled/phreeqc/index.html), or from Vincent Post's web site (http://www.geo.vu.nl/users/posv/phreeqc/index.html).   These two versions are very slightly different - try them both.  In addition, we will use the geochemical database program AquaChem for the projects.

An important assignment is to build a "spread-sheet WATEQ", i.e., a simple equilibrium model using a spreadsheet. This will be built stepwise during the course, with the final goal to be able to calculate activity coefficients, carbonate speciation, neutral complex activity, and the saturation indices for calcite, dolomite, and gypsum, as a function of temperature and ionic strength.

Web-Based Instruction

Many of my lectures will be available on the class Web page. Announcements will also be made on the class web, so it will be a good idea to scan the announcement page for updates, answers to problems, etc. It is also a good idea to get an E-Mail account, as it is much easier to find me this way for questions, and answers by E-mail are "in writing".

Examinations and Projects:

There will be one  in-class mid-term exam, and the exam is available in modified form on the web site right now.  What I mean is that you will know exactly what the form of the questions will be in advance, but you will not know the final version of the question, such as the mineral, the partial pressure, or the pH.  This exam typically takes 2.5 hours to complete.  In addition, there will be a second take-home midterm exam a few weeks later.

The final project will be an in-depth analysis of an aquifer, using all of the modeling tools introduced during the course.  This is a lengthy and important component of the course, and should be started before spring break!!.  You will be given the chemical data and background material for the project in the first few weeks of class.

Return to Chem Hydro home page.                                          Last Updated: 10/30/09