Hydrogeochemical evolution and quality assessment of groundwater within a basalt aquifer system, Tamborine Mountain, Queensland

This thesis examines the hydrogeochemical processes governing the composition of the basalt groundwaters found in Tamborine Mountain, Queensland. By integrating analytical and multivariate analysis it was possible to demonstrate the potential for hydrogeochemical data to identify the controlling factors of the evolution of fractured rock aquifer dynamics. There is major scope for such investigations as many localised areas of the remnants of Cenozoic magmatic activity like Tamborine Mountain have largely been overlooked. It was determined that groundwater is a chemically evolved species of precipitation attributed to the chemical enrichment resulting predominately from water-rock interaction.