Boletín de la Sociedad Geológica Mexicana Volumen 65, núm. 1, 2013, p. 1-8 http://dx.doi.org/10.18268/BSGM2013v65n1a1

El método de Polarización Inducida aplicado en la contaminación de suelos por hidrocarburos

Andrés Tejero Andrade^1,*, Aide Esmeralda López González¹

¹ Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Facultad de Ingeniería, Av. Ciudad Universitaria No. 3000, Col. Universidad, Delegación Coyoacán, C.P. 04510.

^* This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Abstract

 The evidence obtained by some authors devoted to electrical methods has shown that when a conventional resistivity survey is performed, it is not possible to differentiate areas with similar electrochemical behavior of both the organic and inorganic origin. Therefore, in recent years the method of Induced Polarization (IP) has been applied to soil contamination problems, showing encouraging results. This technique was tested, working in the time domain through an electrical tomography profile of resistivity and chargeability data, which was conducted at a site contaminated by hydrocarbons located in the north of Mexico City, where stratigraphy and distribution of the contaminant were complex.

The hydrocarbons were found in a free and dissolved phase, which provided the conditions for taking soil and water samples. These samples were sent to a laboratory for chemical analysis, which depicted benzene concentration in four wells.

The obtained results show that it is possible to define areas of large concentration of pollutants, by correlating electrical information, capacitive and qualitatively, with the information from the Cole-Cole parameters, demonstrating the potential of induced polarization method in pollution problems.

Keywords: electrical resistivity tomography, polarization, chargeability, hydrocarbons, pollution.