Characterisation of pore water in crystalline rocks

The mass of pore water present in the rock matrix of a crystalline rock mass is significant and its influence on fracture groundwater and future deep repositories needs to be understood. Yet, the rock matrix has a hydraulic transmissivity generally well below 10−10 m2 s−1 inhibiting sampling of pore water by conventional sampling techniques. Various innovative techniques for the chemical and isotopic characterisation of pore water in crystalline rocks are applied and evaluated. Direct sampling of pore water was facilitated by collecting seepage water in a specially designed borehole located at a depth of 420 m in the Äspö underground research laboratory (Äspö HRL), Sweden, over a period of 7.5 a. During the entire time span, seepage waters collected from different sampling sections showed constant, but individual chemical and isotopic compositions. Compositional differences compared to nearby fracture groundwaters indicate that the collected waters originated from the low-permeability rock mass without mutual influence via more conductive microfractures within the metre scale. They are interpreted as representing pore water in a transient state of diffusive interaction with different types of old palaeowaters which have periodically characterised the fracture network at the Äspö HRL over geological times (thousands to hundreds of thousands of years).