Full Title: Geology, Hydrogeology, and Environmental Remediation: Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, Eastern Snake River Plain, Idaho
Editors: Paul Karl Link and L.L. Mink
The Idaho National Environmental and Engineering Laboratory (INEEL), on the eastern Snake River Plain, occupies an arid geomorphic system that aggrades by closed-basin fluvial-lacustrine deposition and basaltic plains-volcanism. The area overlies the Snake River Aquifer, one of the largest and most dynamic bodies of subsurface fresh-water in North America, and lies in the wake of the Yellowstone Hot Spot, within the Basin and Range province. This is the first peer-reviewed comprehensive volume dealing with multidisciplinary geoscience research at a U.S. Department of Energy facility. The volume contains 19 papers that deal with environmental issues, bioremediation, hydrogeology, and regional geology. The interdisciplinary coverage of this research is a bridge between pure and applied geoscience in an environmentally critical area. The research was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, and performed by the Idaho Universities Consortium, Idaho Water Resources Research Institute, and the Idaho and U.S. Geological Surveys.
Topics covered by papers in this volume include Quaternary and Pliocene climate history preserved in lake beds within a tectonically underfilled and volcanically silled basin, the Big Lost Trough; stochastic simulation of basalt flow heterogeneity, which allows greater precision of future Snake River Plain subsurface hydrologic models; state-of-the art studies dealing with TCE degradation, tracer tests, and intrinsic bioremediation in layered basalt flows; modelling of thermal water beneath the eastern Snake River Plain; extensive drillhole information and subsurface data about the INEEL area, which allows an unusually precise calculation of recurrence and geometry of basaltic eruptions; a discussion of present aspects of petrogenesis of Snake River Plain basalts; and a modified view of Holocene paleoflood hydrogeology of the Big Lost River.