Geoelectrical and hydro-chemical monitoring of karst formation at the laboratory scale

Abstract

Ensuring sustainable strategies to manage water resources in karst reservoirs requires a better understanding of the mechanisms responsible for conduits formation in the rock mass and the development of detection methods for these hydrological and geochemical processes. In this study, we monitored the electrical conductivity of two limestone core samples during controlled dissolution experiments. We interpret the results with a physics-based model describing the porous medium as effective structural parameters that are tortuosity and constrictivity. We obtain that constrictivity is more affected by calcite dissolution compared to tortuosity. Based on our experimental results and data sets from the literature, we show that the characteristic Johnson length is a valuable structural witness of calcite dissolution impact linking electrical and hydrological properties.