West Fork Whiterocks River, Utah: stable isotope and hydrochemical data for rock glacier water, streamwater, and groundwater

Water draining from rock glaciers in the Uinta Mountains of Utah (USA) was analyzed and compared with samples of groundwater and water from the master stream in a representative 5000-ha drainage. Samples were collected during the melt season of 2021 using automated ISCO samplers. Two samplers were installed at springs discharging from the termini of rock glaciers. A third sampler was installed at a non-rock glacier spring, and the fourth was deployed along the West Fork Whiterocks River. Composite samples of summer and fall rain were also collected, as well as grab samples of snow. Samples were analyzed for their stable isotopic composition using a Los Gatos 45-EP Triple Liquid Water Isotope Analyzer at Middlebury College. Samples were run against a bracketing set of 5 standards and calibrated with a cubic spline function. Each sample was analyzed 10 times, with the first 2 injections discarded to minimize cross-over. Standards were run as unknowns after every five samples as an internal check on the results. Accuracy of the instrument is 0.4‰ for δD and 0.1‰ for δ18O. The standard deviation of repeat injections of the samples in this study was 0.17‰ for δD and 0.04‰ for δ18O. Hydrochemical characterizations were made with a Thermo iCap ICP-MS at Middlebury College. Samples were run against a set of standards derived from NIST Standard Reference Material 1643f “Trace Elements in Water”. An in-house standard was used to determine the abundance of Si and Ti, which are not present in 1643f. The NIST standard and the in-house standards were run after every 10 unknowns and a linear correction was applied to compensate for instrument drift. Interpretation focused on elements that consistently exhibited concentrations >1 ppb.

对美国犹他州 Uinta 山脉的岩冰川排水进行的水样分析，并与代表性 5000 平方公顷排水区域内的地下水及主河道水样进行了对比。水样于 2021 年融雪季节采用自动 ISCO 样品采集器收集。在岩冰川末端排放的泉眼中安装了两个采集器，第三个采集器安装在一个非岩冰川泉眼中，第四个采集器部署在西 Fork Whiterocks 河流沿线。同时收集了夏季和秋季降雨的混合样品，以及雪的抓取样品。样品在中佛蒙特学院的 Los Gatos 45-EP 三重液态水同位素分析仪上进行分析，以确定其稳定同位素组成。样品与一组 5 个标准进行对比，并使用三次样条函数进行校准。每个样品分析了 10 次，前两次注入被弃置以最小化交叉污染。在每五个样品之后，将标准作为未知物运行，以对结果进行内部检查。仪器的精度为 δD 0.4‰ 和 δ18O 0.1‰。本研究中样品重复注入的标准偏差为 δD 0.17‰ 和 δ18O 0.04‰。使用 Middlebury 学院的 Thermo iCap ICP-MS 进行水文化学特征描述。样品与源自 NIST 标准参考物质 1643f “水中的痕量元素”的标准集进行对比。使用内部标准来确定 Si 和 Ti 的丰度，这两种元素在 1643f 中不存在。在每 10 个未知样品之后运行 NIST 标准和内部标准，并应用线性校正以补偿仪器漂移。解释集中在那些浓度持续高于 1 ppb 的元素上。