Hydrogeochemistry of Ground Water in Mbeere South Sub-County, Kenya

Stella Karegi, Kibe Macharia, Wachira Muthengia and Marangu J. Mwiti

International Journal of Chemistry, 2018, vol. 10, issue 4, 173-183

Abstract: This paper presents the experimental and simulated results of ground water in Mbeere South Sub -County, Kenya. A total of 30 samples from 10 boreholes were collected and used to investigate the chemical characteristics of groundwater. The samples were analyzed for physicochemical characteristics such as pH, temperature and Total Dissolved Solids along with major cations and anions using standard analytical procedures. The laboratory data obtained was run into a hydrogeochemical computer model, PHREEQC for aqueous speciation modelling. Origin pro and AqQA computer software were also used to reveal more hydrogeochemistry of the groundwater in the area. The results showed that the Na+ ? Ca2+ ? Mg2+ ? K+> Fe3+were the dominant cations while HCO3-?Cl->SO42->NO3-?F- were the dominant anions. The hydrogeochemical facies indicated that 40% of the samples belong to the Ca2+-Mg2+-Cl--SO42- type, 40% belong to the Ca2+-Mg2+-HCO3-, 20 % are of the type Na+-K+-HCO3- with no Na+-K+-Cl--SO42- water type. The facies also illustrated atmospheric precipitation, dissolution of salt deposits within the vadose zones and weathering of halite, anhydrite, gypsum, huntite, hydromagnesite, artinite, dolomite and magnesite as the major contributors to the variation in Mbeere South groundwater chemistry. The Saturation Indices (SI) showed that the specimens were slightly saturated with aragonite, calcite, and dolomite; slightly under-saturated with anhydrite and gypsum; moderately under saturated with halite and under-saturated with hydromagnesite, trona and portlandite.

Keywords: facies; Groundwater modelling; Hydrogeochemical processes; Saturation index; Water-rock interaction (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/ijc/article/download/0/0/37629/37994 (application/pdf)
http://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/ijc/article/view/0/37629 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ibn:ijcjnl:v:10:y:2018:i:4:p:173-183

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in International Journal of Chemistry from Canadian Center of Science and Education Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Canadian Center of Science and Education ().