Abstract

Talk 1

Carl Steefl – Lawrence Berkeley National Lab – “New Approaches for Multiscale Modeling of Water-Rock-Gas Interaction”

Carl Steefel has played a leading role in the development of modelling of reactive transport by fluids applicable to rocks. He has played major roles in the development of the mathematical representation of reactive transport the writing of software to solve the mathematical relationships and the application of the modelling to important geological and environmental problems.

And then

Talk 2

Jenny Druhan – University of Illinois Urbana-Champagne – “Reactive Transport approaches to quantify the linkage between physical structure biogeochemical reactivity and isotope partitioning in aquifers”

Because these water-rock-life interactions take place at interfaces, both fluid composition and the physical and chemical structure of porous media must be treated as coevolving phenomena.  Such complex and interrelated processes can hinder both interpretation and prediction of key environmental processes.  One avenue of addressing this complexity is the use of multicomponent numerical methods that combine the governing equations of flow, transport and reactivity.  In this presentation I will demonstrate the construction and application of reactive transport models to address key hydrogeochemical problems, with an emphasis on the balance between simulations of complex reactivity versus highly heterogeneous hydrologic conditions.  Examples include stable isotope fractionations during microbially-mediated redox cycling and reactivity in highly resolved permeability structures.  The goal is to demonstrate how simulations can be used to interrogate complex field data and thus provide new insights into the processes governing hydrogeochemical systems.