The Effect of Changing the Salinity of the Groundwater on SIP of Sandstones

Previous work between the University of Birmingham and Technical University Clausthal examined the basic shape of the complex conductivity spectra of sandstones saturated with a synthetic groundwater solution and compared the two different laboratory measurement procedures. It is known that the Spectral Induced Polarisation (SIP) is also dependent upon the pore fluid so we examined the effect of two different salinity groundwaters on the SIP response. The changes caused by decreasing the salinity of the groundwater varied widely for different sandstones with both increasing and decreasing phase angles recorded along with some changes in the shape of the spectra. We are now continuing to make multiple salinity measurements with a variety of cations in order to better quantify these changes.