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Calcite Deposits in Fractures at Yucca Mountain, Nevada

by D. T. Vaniman, Los Alamos Natl Lab, Los Alamos, United States,



Document Type: Proceeding Paper

Part of: High Level Radioactive Waste Management 1993

Abstract:

Calcite is one of the latest-formed minerals within fractures at Yucca Mountain. Petrographic and chemical studies of these calcites have the potential, in conjunction with fluid-inclusion and isotopic studies, of determining the locations of transmissive regions in unsaturated tuffs. Preliminary chemical data for fracture calcites from Yucca Mountain indicate a common composition for most unsaturated-zone calcites (low abundances of transition elements; chondrite-normalized lanthanide-element patterns with prominent negative Ce and Eu anomalies) that is distinct from most calcites in the saturated zone. Exceptions to this general characterization occur in drill core USW G-4; the reasons for these deviations are as yet unknown, but the rich variety of calcite compositions suggests that much information is to be gained from further studies.

Subject Headings: Radioactive wastes | Cracking | Waste disposal | Subsurface investigation | Site investigation | Minerals | Mine wastes | Nevada | United States

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