Abstract

In May 2006, the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, conducted surface and borehole geophysical surveys at the former Tyson Valley Powder Farm near Eureka, Mo., to identify preferential pathways for potential contaminant transport along the bedrock surface and into dissolution-enhanced fractures. The Tyson Valley Powder Farm was formerly used as a munitions storage and disposal facility in the 1940s and 1950s, and the site at which the surveys were performed was a disposal area for munitions and waste solvents such as trichloroethylene and dichloroethylene. Direct-current resistivity and seismic refraction data were acquired on the surface; gamma, electromagnetic induction, and full waveform sonic logs were acquired in accessible boreholes. Through the combined interpretation of the seismic refraction tomographic and resistivity inversion results and borehole logs, inconsistencies in the bedrock surface were identified that may provide horizontal preferential flow paths for dense nonaqueous phase liquid contaminants. These results, interpreted and displayed in georeferenced three-dimensional space, should help to establish more effective monitoring and remediation strategies.

First posted September 17, 2009