CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF RIVERS AND LAKES 



G3 



depths of Lake Baikal (Mendelejev, 1935, Ingerson, 

 1953) is somewhat denser than surface water, but the 

 isotopes concerned have not been measured. In view 

 of the very considerable body of evidence for vertical 

 mixing in Lake Baikal (Tolmachev, 1957a, 1957b), 

 this result must be viewed with suspicion until such 

 time as it has been verified by mass-spectrometric 

 methods. 



Table 2. — Deuterium content of lakes and rivers 



[The working standard contained 0.0148±0.0001 mole percent deuterium. Recalcu- 

 lated from Friedman (1953)] 



Locality 



Columbia River, Trail, British Columbia. 

 Violin Lake, Trail, British Columbia 



Do 



Do 



Juneau Glacier, 235 ft below surface 



Juneau Glacier, 155 ft below surface 



Grasshopper Glacier, Park County, Mont 



Salt Lake boat harbor, Great Salt Lake, Utah. 



Gullmar Fjord, west coast of Sweden 



Mississippi River, Baton Rouge, La— 



Mississippi River, Clinton, Iowa 



Platte River near Ashland, Nebr • 



St. Lawrence River, Ogdensburg, N.Y ' 



Susquehanna River at Marietta, Pa 1 



Apalachicola River, Chattachoochee, Fla '_ 

 Sacramento River, Verona, Calif i 



San Joaquin River, Vernalis, Calif 1 



Connecticut River, Thompsonville, Conn. 



Ohio River, Louisville, Ky 



Arkansas River, Van Buren, Ark 



Rio Grande near Mission, Tex 



Missouri River, Kansas City, Mo 



Red River near Colbert, Okla 



Red River of the North, Oslo, Minn > 



Colorado River at Yuma, Ariz 



Snake River near Clarkston, Wash ■ 



Roanoke River near Scotland Neck, N. C 



Monongahela River, near Morgantown, W. Va. 



Date 



July 17, 1943.. 

 June 26, 1944.. 

 Nov. 6, 1943... 

 Sept. 23, 1943. 



-Aug. 19, 1948. 



Apr. 29, 1952., 

 May 3, 1948- 

 June 2, 1948.. 

 May 7, 1948- 



June 11, 1948. 

 May 29, 1948. 



July 7, 1948... 

 June 17, 1948. 

 June4, 1948. . 

 June 3, 1948. . 



Apr. 1-30, 1948... 



June 12, 1948 



March-April 1948 

 July 12, 1948 



June 4, 1948 



June 17, 1948.. 

 Mar. 26, 1943. 



Atoms H*/ 

 10' atoms Hi 



13.3 

 13.5 

 13.5 

 13.8 



13.8 

 13.8 

 13.2 

 14.1 



15.1 



14.9 



U4. 6 



U4.9 



'14. 9 

 1 14.8 

 ■15.4 

 ■14.6 



U4. 5 



14.5 

 14.8 

 15.3 



15.3 



13.8 



15.3 



114.8 



13.8 

 1 13.9 



15.0 

 14.6 



■ Craig and Boato (1955, p. 406) say that these determinations must be discarded, 

 the containers being faulty and evaporation having occurred. 



Density measurements are more valuable as in- 

 dicators of problems to be investigated by more re- 

 fined tools than as sources of hydrologic information. 



CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF LAKE AND RIVER WATER 



NATURE AND CAUSES OF VARIATIONS IN 

 COMPOSITION 



River water is extremely variable in chemical com- 

 position. To begin with, there may be a considerable 

 variation in the chemistry of the rainwater that is 

 falling on a river basin. Gorham (1958) has studied 

 the chemistry of the daily precipitation in the lake 

 district of England over a period of 1 year and has 

 found variation in the concentration and composition 

 of the salts in rainwater depending on the previous 

 history of the air mass from which it falls (fig. 1). 

 After deposition there is more or less concentration 

 of the salt content by evaporation of moisture from 

 the surface of the drainage basin. This produces 



Table 3. — Tritium content of lakes and rivers 

 [Analyses from Libby (1955)] 



Locality 



Mississippi River, St. Louis, Mo. 



Do 



Do 



Do 



Do 



Do. 

 Do. 



Mississippi River, Rock Island, EL. 



Do 



Do 



Do- 

 Do.. 

 Do- 



Mississippi River, Memphis, Term 

 Mississippi River, New Orleans, La.. 



Sangamon River, Decatur, El. 



Arkansas River, Conway, Ark 



River Elbe, Hamburg, Germany- 

 River Weser, Bremen, Germany.. 

 River Rhone, Lyons, France 



River Main near Wiirzburg, Germany 



River Loire, Digoin, France 



Stream near Cambridge, England, about 1 mile 



below spring source 



River Donau, near Ulm, Germany 



River Mosel, near Metz, France 



River Seine, near Nogent, France 



River Fulda, near Kassel, Germany - 



River Rhine, between Geisenheim and Riides- 



heim 



River Marne, Joinville, France 



Shasta Dam, Calif 



El Rito de los Frijoles, Jemez Mountains, 

 N. Mex 



Rio Grande, northwest of Santa Fe, N. Mex 



Winsor Creek, just above junction with Pecos, 



Cowles, N. Mex 



Rio Guajataca at Lares, Puerto Rico 



Rio Arecibo at Utuado, Puerto Rico 



River Tomokoa, Fla., on Route 92 near Daytona 

 Beach 



Alafia River, Fla., on route 60 about 20 miles east 

 of Tampa _._ 



Mean of three samples of University of Chicago 

 tap water, believed to be representative of 

 Lake Michigan 



Lake behind Shasta Dam, Calif 



Effluent from Schoharie Reservoir, Allaben, 

 N.Y... 



Roundout Reservoir, Palisades, N.Y 



Date 



19SS 



Jan. 31 



Feb. 4 



Feb. 10 



Feb. 20 



Mar. 17 



Apr. 17 



July 22 



Jan. 29 



Feb. 6 



Feb. 24 



Mar. 16 



Apr. 17 



June 30 



Feb. 4 



Feb. 8 



19SS 

 Aug. 6 



19S8 



Mar. 20 



Aug. 31 



Sept. 1 



Sept. 10 



Sept. 13 



Sept. 9 



Sept. 12. 

 Sept. 7- 



Sept. 8- 

 Sept. 24. 



Sept. 7— 

 Sept. 8_. 



Jan. 30. 



1964 



Feb. 7.. 

 Feb. 7_ 



Feb. 22_. 

 Mar. 2.. 

 Mar. 2.. 



Mar. 19. 

 Mar. 22. 



Before Feb. 15.. 



Feb. 6.. 

 Feb. 6.. 



Atoms H»/10i» 

 atoms Hi 



5.6 ±0.6 

 4. 5 ±0. 6 

 6. ±0. 9 



6. 4 ±0. 6 



5.4 ±2.4 



6.0 ±0.4 



7. 3 ±0. 4 



2.5 ±0.3 



3.7 ±0.4 

 4. 4 ±0. 2 



3.2 ±0.2 



5.3 ±0.3 

 7. 2 ±0. 7 

 6.0 ±1.0 

 4.7 ±0.3 



1.15±0.08 



3. 12±0. 10 

 2. 67±0. 12 

 1. 76±0. 10 

 2. 64±0. 16 



1.76±0.19 

 2.11±0.14 



1. 25±0. 10 

 2. 13±0. 38 

 2. 15±0. 12 



1. 80±0. 3 



2. 35±0. 1 



2.1 ±0.2 

 2.1 ±0.2 



2. 7 ±0.1 



27. 2±0. 4 

 6.6 ±0.2 



9. 9 ±0. 2 

 0. 7 ±0. 2 

 1.1 ±0.2 



45.4±0.6 

 60 ±3 



1.64±0.04 

 2. 7 ±0. 15 



8.4 ±0.3 

 7.2 ±0.3 



variations in chemical content not only from basin 

 to basin, but also from time to time. 



The most important factor introducing temporal 

 variability into river-water chemistry, however, seems 

 to be the relative contribution of ground water and sur- 

 face runoff, as they are affected by changes in discharge. 

 In general, the contribution of ground water to a river 

 tends to be relatively stable, but the contribution of 

 surface runoff tends to be variable. When rainfall 

 on the basin has been light or absent for some pro- 

 tracted period of time, the nourishment of the stream 

 is almost entirely by ground water. When rainfall is 

 heavy, and particularly when it is concentrated in 

 short periods of time, the nourishment of the swollen 

 stream may be almost entirely by runoff. Ground 

 water, by its long-standing intimate contact with rocks 



