Self-potential (SP) generated by electrokinesis - Efficiency and low cost dam safety

The sell-potential (SP) method is easy to apply, efficient and low cost in cases of detecting anomalous water flows in earth dams. This type of dam is quite common for water storage and mining tailing disposal. SP causes are exposed in here, both in its original use - prospecting for massive sulfides -, and in studies of groundwater flows, such as it is done in this article. The flow study in dams shows they have their directions defined as being from a lower to a higher potential. These potentials come from the ion movement in solution transported by undersurface waters. These two cases in which the method was successfully used are reported, an older one (1996), and other recent one (2019). Obtained results showed quite dearly the presence of features correlated to anomalous flows inside dam massifs evidenced by iso value maps of SP measurements. (C) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.