The unsaturated hydraulic characteristics of the Bandelier Tuff

This report summarizes the physical and, unsaturated hydraulic properties of the Bandelier Tuff determined from laboratory measurements made on core samples collected at Los Alamos National Laboratory. We fit new van Genuchten-type moisture retention curves to this data, which was categorized according to member of the Bandelier Tuff and subunit of the Tshirege Member. Reasonable consistency was observed for hydraulic properties and retention curves within lithologic units, while distinct differences were observed for those properties between units. With the moisture retention data, we constructed vertical profiles of in situ matric suction and hydraulic head. These profiles give an indication of the likely direction of liquid water movement within the unsaturated zone and allow comparison of core-scale and field-scale estimates of water flow and solute transport parameters. Our core-derived transport velocities are much smaller than values estimated from tritium, Cl, and NO{sub 3} contamination found recently in boreholes. The contaminant tracer-derived transport velocities from Los Alamos Canyon are greater than corederived values found for the Otowi Member, and for Mortandad Canyon, greater than core-derived values for that borehole. The significant difference found for Mortandad Canyon suggests that fracture or other fast-path transport may be important there. The relatively small difference between observed and predicted velocities at Los Alamos Canyon may mean that vadose zone transport there occurs by unsaturated matrix flow.