Informatics Publishing Limited

S. Chitradevi ¹, S. G. D. Sridhar ¹

Affiliations
1 Department of Applied Geology, University of Madras, Guindy Campus, Chennai-600 025, India

Abstract

Hydrochemical investigations of the groundwater and the seasonal effect on the chemical budget of ions in the proximity of river Noyyal were carried out. Geochemical results show that the seasonal effect does not change the order of abundance of ions. Trend line diagram depicting the linear relationship among various parameters were carried out. Linear relationship is observed at almost all stations between TDS and Cl^-as well as TDS and Na⁺ throughout the study area reflecting that the nature and origin of these ions would have come from the same source. In order to study the hydrogeochemical classifications, Piper-Hill diagram is used. During both the monsoon periods, Piper diagram characterizes the water types as NaCl, mixed CaMgCl and CaHCO₃. Most of the samples fall in the sodium-potassium zone but the dominance of chloride type of waters was observed among anions. Gibb's diagram clearly demonstrates the dominance of non-geogenic activity responsible for the chemical budget of water. During both the monsoon periods, most of the samples fall away from the three major natural factors viz., Precipitation dominance, rock dominance and evaporation-crystallization dominance indicating that the chemistry of water is decided predominantly by anthropogenic activities. In the study area, the influence of polluted river water to the adjacent aquifer dominates the change in chemical composition of groundwater.

Keywords

Groundwater, Geochemistry, River Noyyal, Water Quality

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