Grants and Contributions:

Grant or Award spanning more than one fiscal year (2017-2018 to 2018-2019).

Gypsum deposits are well known in the Upper Amaranth Formation, west of Lake Manitoba and have beenx000D
used for several decades. However, gypsum readily dissolves when it comes in contact with water, enrichingx000D
the soil and groundwater but literally can create holes in the gypsum formation. With increasing size of thex000D
subsurface holes in the gypsum the ability to stabilize the overlying soil layer reduces so that sinkholes canx000D
form damaging the infrastructure. Sinkholes due to gypsum dissolution can be found in Canada and worldwide,x000D
e.g. RM of Alonsa, MB, Michigan, USA, and Asse-Heeseberg Ridge, Germany.x000D
In this proposed research, the main objective is to develop a geochemical model to estimate gypsumx000D
dissolution rates in the RM of Alonsa. The model will be used to predict areas which are prone to sinkholex000D
development utilizing three-dimensional reactive transport modeling of the shallow formations. The key tox000D
technology transfer is the integration of reaction kinetics into a three-dimensional transport model. This kindx000D
of modeling is cutting-edge technology and will allow the industry partner Stantec to expand into reactivex000D
transport modeling of geology, quarrying, mining, and geological hazards. This will allow them to developx000D
more sophisticated models which are able to better protection the environment and which will allow Stantec tox000D
bid on more projects.