ChemHydro Final Project: 
Underg
raduate Students

Style Guide for the Undergraduate Project
   Remember, this is a guide.  It is presented to give you a model of both the thought processes involved in interpreting your project and a structure for presenting that process and the results in your paper.

The final project is to describe the geochemical evolution of groundwater from rainfall to a well sample, in an aquifer.  We will provide you with the aquifer information in the final discharge well, you will be responsible for finding a shallow recharge well or river sample analysis, and the average precipitation chemistry (see link at bottom of page).  Using the given data, precipitation data, and any other geologic/chemical information you dig up, examine the water chemistry along the flow path from recharge to the discharge well, and account for rock-water, gas-water, and biological-water interactions. 

The goal of the project is to prepare a written report that describes the fundamental geochemical reactions along the aquifer flow path and to defend that geochemical interpretation by analysis of given data This analysis should be done using your spreadsheet and the geochemical modeling programs PhreeqC.  The report is a maximum 15 pages of text, with an introduction, methods, results, and interpretation sections, plus any necessary figures to illustrate your point.  In addition, you must include a table of the wells and chemical values that you used for your evaluation.  Required components of the project include:

  1. A brief description of the problem, the regional hydrogeology, and the principle flow path;
  2. A complete interpretation of the changes in pH, DO, Alk, [Fe], [Si], [Ca], [Mg], and [Mn] and trace metals along the flow path;
  3. An interpretation of the acid base and redox chemistry, reactions, and changes in pH and Eh, along the flow path;
  4. A reaction-path model that tests each of the major hypothetical reactions along your flow path (must include mixing if you invoke that, but diffusion/dispersion is not required in the model).

You can use any reference you like, but you must cite your sources, and your interpretation must be your own.  Don't be shy about using the tools and resources at your disposal...including programs available in Rm 5.224, library references, journals and text, or web sources.

A Note on Plagiarism:

While working together on the project is encouraged, the final work product must be your own, with appropriate citations to your sources.  That means all sources, including journal articles, text books, web sources and your buddies in class.  It is very easy for you to find a great bit of writing with Google, and it is just as easy for me to google a sentence and determine that the great bit of writing is not your own work.  Plagiarism is stupid, and will result in a no-credit on the work, which will almost always mean a failing grade in the class. 

Grading Elements:

  1. Clear presentation of the chemistry;
  2. Development of reasonable alternative hypotheses based on the data;
  3. Testing of your hypotheses using appropriate chemistry and geochemical models;
  4. Presentation of your best model for the major reactions along the flowpath;
  5. Effective use of graphical data representation;
  6. Scholarship and research;
  7. Documentation and citations.

Site Background and Data:

TBA

Links:

NADP/NTN Data Access Site