Zhou and 4 co-authors reported in 2005 that rare earth elements (REE) have been used extensively to study petrologic and mineralogic processes, as well as trace element cycling in the oceans since the late 1970's and early 1980's. More recently, with the improvement of analytical instrumentation, REEs can be readily measured at the low parts-per-trillion level in natural waters using, for example, inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). One consequence of the improvements in analytical instrumentation is the increase in the numbers of investigations of the REEs in groundwater.
Many of these studies indicate that groundwater commonly has REE patterns that closely mimic the REE patterns of the rocks through which they flow. The similarities between groundwater and aquifer rock REE patterns suggest that the REEs may be useful tracers of groundwater-aquifer rock interactions. Many investigations have already demonstrated the utility of the REEs as chemical tracers of numerous geochemical weathering processes and possibly biogeochemical redox processes. Although previous studies have demonstrated that in many cases the REE concentrations observed in groundwater mimic those of rocks through which they flowed, quantitative, controlled investigations of the REE signatures aqueous solutions acquire by reacting with different types of rocks at low temperatures have not been completed.
In order to gain a better understanding of how different rock types can affect the concentrations of REEs in aqueous solutions that react with the rocks and to obtain additional information concerning REE behavior during rock-water reactions, the authors conducted a series of batch reactor experiments involving compositionally different rock types, and two aqueous solutions (i.e., distilled deionized water and an acidic solution).
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