Axel Suckow

Biography

Dr Axel Suckow may be called the “brain” behind the noble gas facilities for groundwater studies in Australia. He championed the establishment of new facilities, makes them work and develops practical groundwater applications. The stable noble gas facility in Adelaide is the second one Axel designed and TriFIn is the third. The first noble gas facility Axel designed is at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna. Axel was also the initiator of the ATTA cooperation with The University of Adelaide to develop an Atom Trap Trace Analysis system to measure the rare and radioactive noble gas isotopes ⁸⁵Kr, ³⁹Ar and ⁸¹Kr – completely novel tools for groundwater studies in Australia.

Where possible noble gases should always be part of a multi-tracer groundwater application and contribute complementary knowledge to understanding the groundwater systems that most of inland Australia depends on. Applications include water resource assessments, water security planning, the vulnerability assessment of groundwater dependent ecosystems, fate and transport of contaminants such as PFAS in groundwater, etc. Presently, we also explore the use of helium in groundwater as a proxy for natural hydrogen (aka gold hydrogen) in groundwater. Finally, noble gases also play an important role in oceanographic studies and contribute important knowledge to mineral genesis when applied to fluid inclusions.

While the creation of multi tracer datasets requires careful expert planning, groundwater sampling and isotope measurements, the interpretation of such data sets also requires specialist skills and tools such as the in-house Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) Labdata with its integrated isotope analysis software. The LIMS includes several age distribution models such as the piston flow, exponential and dispersion model; it also allows interpretation of infiltration conditions of the water such as temperature (noble gas solubility is temperature dependent) and even altitude (the amount of dissolved noble gases also depends on atmospheric pressure which itself is a function of altitude) from which recharge location can be inferred.