A LITERATURE SURVEY OF NOBLE GAS SOLUBILITY MEASUREMENTS IN FORMATION BRINES TO INTERPRET TRACER EXPERIMENTS

OSU School of Earth Sciences Field Experience ScholarshipOSU School of Earth Sciences Spieker Memorial ScholarshipSubterranean fluid compounds of interest in the Earth’s crust, such as natural gas, oil, asphalt, condensate, brine, and freshwater are obscured from direct observation. Even with modernizations of technology and science, fluid behavior in the sub-surface remains a mystery. Understanding the fluid interactions that are normally obscured from direct observation, has been accomplished with “tracer” elements and compounds. These compounds are usually inert to decay or reaction in order to preserve distinguishable characteristics. Due to the unique radionucleic composition and relative abundances, the noble gases are particularly powerful natural fluid tracers. Determining expected patterns in a fluid mixture requires knowledge of solubility to interpret physical processes. The noble gas solubilities have been described by the Ideal Gas Equation of state (EOS), Peng-Robinson EOS, and Redlich-Kwong EOS. Yet, all have caveats and nuances. This work makes the steps toward empirical based explanation through examination of eleven published works in the literature of aqueous noble gas solubility. Utilizing this dataset, interpretations of solubility patterns using temperature and pressure are then made. Empirical datasets such as these can provide a measure of validation for theoretical equations and models to provide a means to better interpret and predict the effects of fluid flow phenomena underground.No embarg