Silica, ground-water

Sedimentary rocks (like sandstone) have a microstructure rather like that of a vitreous ceramic. Sandstone is made of particles of silica, bonded together either by more silica or by calcium carbonate (CaCOj). Like pottery, it is porous. The difference lies in the way the bonding phase formed it is precipitated from solution in ground water, rather than formed by melting. 

Ground-water composition would be altered by the glass, either by two-phase chemical reactions or, more likely, by leaching of glass components. In particular, relatively high concentrations of dissolved and colloidal silica would be expected. 

The weathering reactions given above show the key effects of weathering the breakdown of the original rock minerals, the consumption of H, and the release of cations and silica into solution which can then be used to make new minerals or be lost from the soil into the ground-water and rivers. 

The influence that variations of temperature and levels of atmospheric CO2 and O2 have on chemical weathering are more subtle. Temperature appears to have a direct effect on weathering rate (White and Blum, 1995). The silica concentration of rivers (Meybeck, 1979, 1987) and the alkalinity of ground waters in carbonate terrains (Harmon et al., 1975) are both positively correlated with temperature variations. It is not clear, however, whether temperature-related variations in weathering rates are largely due to variations in vegetational activity that parallel temperature variations. 

In situ densitometry has been the most preferred method for quantitative analysis of substances. The important applications of densitometry in inorganic PLC include the determination of boron in water and soil samples [38], N03 and FefCNfg in molasses [56], Se in food and biological samples [28,30], rare earths in lanthanum, glass, and monazite sand [22], Mg in aluminum alloys [57], metallic complexes in ground water and electroplating waste water [58], and the bromate ion in bread [59]. TLC in combination with in situ fluorometry has been used for the isolation and determination of zirconium in bauxite and almnimun alloys [34]. The chromatographic system was silica gel as the stationary phase and butanol + methanol + HCl -H water -n HF (30 15 30 10 7) as the mobile phase. 

Figure 1.142. The computed result of the relationship between dissolved silica (H4Si04) concentration of mixed fluid and temperature based on four reservoirs model (Shikazono et al, 2002). Open triangle solubility curve for quartz, Open square solubility curve for a-cristabalite, Solid triangle Hishikari Lower Andesite lava (drilling core), Cross Relatively fresh Hishikari Lower Andesite lava (drilling core). H.S. hydrothermal solution G.W. ground water.

Carlson, L. Schwertmann, U. (1981) Natural ferrihydrites in surface deposits from Finland and their association with silica. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 45 421-429 Carlson, L. Schwertmann, U. (1987) Iron and manganese oxides in Finnish ground water treatment plants. Wat. Res. 21 165-170 Carlson, L. Schwertmann, U. (1990) The effect of CO2 and oxidation rate on the formation of goethite versus lepidocrocite from an Fe(II) system at pH 6 and 7. Clay Min. 25 65-71... 

High rates of water influx remove SiO at low solution concentrations. Normal ground water and streams carry about 17 ppm SiO and less in high rainfall areas (Davis, 1964). In some weathering profiles silicification or deposition of silica has been observed. Most often the form of the phase deposited is crypto-crystalline, either opal or chalcedony. In these cases quartz grains do not show overgrowths (Elouard and Millot,... 

DAVIS (S.N.), 1964. Silica in streams and ground water. Amer. Journ. 

Figure 3. Stability fields of some minerals in the Na20-Al203-Si02-H20 system at 25°C. as a function of Na+, H and dissolved silica. Points are from ground water analyses of siliceous rocks...

Richardson and Waddams (31) found the same behavior for silica. Ground quartz particles agitated with water release some monosilicic acid molecules which form a true solution and, in addition, some very small quartz crystals which form a dispersion in water until a hydrated equilibrium surface is established. Analogous to the ferric oxide, heating the quartz to a temperature above 600° C. regenerates the anomalous solubility behavior. 

Clay minerals are present in almost all surface-water and ground-water systems, and in many instances may be controlling the concentration of aluminum, silica, iron, magnesium, or other cations in solution. The thermodynamic data necessary to evaluate the state of reaction (saturation) are not available for some clay minerals, and for those minerals with published values, the data are in disagreement by as much as 10 kilocalories per mole for the same clay mineral. A critical review of the available data for kaolinite and sepiolite, incorporating both the most recent thermodynamic data for the components in the reaction schemes and a more complete computation for the solubility data, yields the values of -907.7 +1.3 and 1105.6 +0.4 kilocalories per mole for the free energy of formation of kaolinite and sepiolite, respectively. 

Solubility calculations were added for two allophanes, for which the equilibrium constants and formulae are a function of pH. Paces (74) found cold ground waters collected from springs in granitic rocks of the Bohemian Massif of Czechoslovakia to be supersaturated with respect to kaolinite while being unsaturated with respect to amorphous silica. He interpreted this as an indication that a metastable aluminosilicate more soluble than kaolinite was controlling the concentrations of alumina and silica in these waters. This aluminosilicate was further hypothesized to be of varied chemical composition, controlled by the mole... 

This is the case for water adsorbed on the silica (ground quartz). The corresponding experimental heats of immersion curve were reported by Partyka et al. [76,77] and are redrawn here by us in Fig. 7(A). Also in this figure the heat of immersion of kaolinite in water is shown for comparison, redrawn from the work of Fripiat et al. [95]. Figure 7(B) shows the comparison of the isosteric heats of adsorption Qst calculated from these immersion curves according to Eq. (35). Note that also in the case of water adsorption on kaolinite, Qst does not reach the value of the heat of liquefaction, equal to 40.7 kj mol . ... 

Water supply to the plant is either ground water (wells), surface water (lakes, rivers), or city water. Raw water is typically contaminated with salts, oils, various organic substances, calcium, clay, silica, magnesium, manganese, aluminum, sulfate, fertilizers, ammonia, insecticides, carbon dioxide and, of course, bacteria and pyrogens. A city water treatment plant removes most of these impurities, but adds chlorine or chloramines and fluoride. Table 1 summarizes the level of contaminants by type of raw water. 

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