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River thorium concentrations can record bedrock fracture processes including some triggered by distant seismic events

Fractures are integral to the hydrology and geochemistry of watersheds, but our understanding of fracture dynamics is very limited because of the challenge of monitoring the subsurface. Here we provide evidence that long-term, high-frequency measurements of the river concentration of the ultra-trace...

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Autores principales: Gilbert, Benjamin, Carrero, Sergio, Dong, Wenming, Joe-Wong, Claresta, Arora, Bhavna, Fox, Patricia, Nico, Peter, Williams, Kenneth H.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10133341/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37100828
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-37784-3
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author Gilbert, Benjamin
Carrero, Sergio
Dong, Wenming
Joe-Wong, Claresta
Arora, Bhavna
Fox, Patricia
Nico, Peter
Williams, Kenneth H.
author_facet Gilbert, Benjamin
Carrero, Sergio
Dong, Wenming
Joe-Wong, Claresta
Arora, Bhavna
Fox, Patricia
Nico, Peter
Williams, Kenneth H.
author_sort Gilbert, Benjamin
collection PubMed
description Fractures are integral to the hydrology and geochemistry of watersheds, but our understanding of fracture dynamics is very limited because of the challenge of monitoring the subsurface. Here we provide evidence that long-term, high-frequency measurements of the river concentration of the ultra-trace element thorium (Th) can provide a signature of bedrock fracture processes spanning neighboring watersheds in Colorado. River Th concentrations show abrupt (subdaily) excursions and biexponential decay with approximately 1-day and 1-week time constants, concentration patterns that are distinct from all other solutes except beryllium and arsenic. The patterns are uncorrelated with daily precipitation records or seasonal trends in atmospheric deposition. Groundwater Th analyses are consistent with bedrock release and dilution upon mixing with river water. Most Th excursions have no seismic signatures that are detectable 50 km from the site, suggesting the Th concentrations can reveal aseismic fracture or fault events. We find, however, a weak statistical correlation between Th and seismic motion caused by distant earthquakes, possibly the first chemical signature of dynamic earthquake triggering, a phenomenon previously identified only through geophysical methods.
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spelling pubmed-101333412023-04-28 River thorium concentrations can record bedrock fracture processes including some triggered by distant seismic events Gilbert, Benjamin Carrero, Sergio Dong, Wenming Joe-Wong, Claresta Arora, Bhavna Fox, Patricia Nico, Peter Williams, Kenneth H. Nat Commun Article Fractures are integral to the hydrology and geochemistry of watersheds, but our understanding of fracture dynamics is very limited because of the challenge of monitoring the subsurface. Here we provide evidence that long-term, high-frequency measurements of the river concentration of the ultra-trace element thorium (Th) can provide a signature of bedrock fracture processes spanning neighboring watersheds in Colorado. River Th concentrations show abrupt (subdaily) excursions and biexponential decay with approximately 1-day and 1-week time constants, concentration patterns that are distinct from all other solutes except beryllium and arsenic. The patterns are uncorrelated with daily precipitation records or seasonal trends in atmospheric deposition. Groundwater Th analyses are consistent with bedrock release and dilution upon mixing with river water. Most Th excursions have no seismic signatures that are detectable 50 km from the site, suggesting the Th concentrations can reveal aseismic fracture or fault events. We find, however, a weak statistical correlation between Th and seismic motion caused by distant earthquakes, possibly the first chemical signature of dynamic earthquake triggering, a phenomenon previously identified only through geophysical methods. Nature Publishing Group UK 2023-04-26 /pmc/articles/PMC10133341/ /pubmed/37100828 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-37784-3 Text en © The Author(s) 2023 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Article
Gilbert, Benjamin
Carrero, Sergio
Dong, Wenming
Joe-Wong, Claresta
Arora, Bhavna
Fox, Patricia
Nico, Peter
Williams, Kenneth H.
River thorium concentrations can record bedrock fracture processes including some triggered by distant seismic events
title River thorium concentrations can record bedrock fracture processes including some triggered by distant seismic events
title_full River thorium concentrations can record bedrock fracture processes including some triggered by distant seismic events
title_fullStr River thorium concentrations can record bedrock fracture processes including some triggered by distant seismic events
title_full_unstemmed River thorium concentrations can record bedrock fracture processes including some triggered by distant seismic events
title_short River thorium concentrations can record bedrock fracture processes including some triggered by distant seismic events
title_sort river thorium concentrations can record bedrock fracture processes including some triggered by distant seismic events
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10133341/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37100828
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-37784-3
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