Simulation of natural acid sulfate weathering in an Alpine Watershed

Streams with acidic sulfate compositions (pH less than 3.5) are naturally generated in the alpine Geneva Creek Basin of the southern Rocky Mountains, an area underlain by Proterozoic metamorphic and igneous rocks that are intruded by Tertiary felsic stocks with associated pyritic alteration. These naturally acidic waters are similar in composition to more familiar man-made acid mine waters or to surface waters acidified by sulfate precipitation. Detailed study of the stream compositions has revealed the principal reactions driving the weathering process and was used to estimate the relative effects of snowpack ionic input versus the solute contribution from acid attack in soil zones and groundwater. In the Geneva Creek Basin, atmospheric sources of solute represent a minor component to the stream water composition, except for chloride, which can be used to determine the fraction of contribution. The weathering process is a balance between oxidation of sulfides, dissolution of silicates, formation of the clay minerals vermiculite, kaolinite, and smectite, carbonate neutralization, and precipitation of ferric and aluminum oxyhydroxides and aluminum sulfate. The chemical analyses of snow samples, multiple samples of water from Geneva Creek and its tributaries, and the composition of primary and secondary minerals identified in the basin serve as input to a mass balance geochemical model, which facilitates the interpretation of the principal geochemical processes.