Hydrology and Earth System Sciences
Hydrology and Earth System Sciences
HESS
Articles | Volume 30, issue 7
Articles | Volume 30, issue 7
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-2093-2026
© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-2093-2026
© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Articles | Volume 30, issue 7
Research article
 | 
15 Apr 2026
Research article |  | 15 Apr 2026

On the relevance of molecular diffusion for travel time distributions inferred from different water isotopes

Erwin Zehe, Laurent Pfister, Dan Elhanati, and Brian Berkowitz

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Short summary
Travel or transit time distributions play a key role in contaminant leaching from the partially saturated zone into groundwater. Here we show that average travel times are of different water isotopes may differ by 5 %–10 %. These difference arise in case of imperfect mixing due to trapping of isotope molecules in bottle necks of very small hydraulic conductivity. Molecules with smaller diffusion coefficient stay there for a longer time.
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