Reply to comment by A. Revil and N. Linde on 'Streaming potential dependence on water-content in Fontainebleau sand'

Vincent Allègre (1) , Laurence Jouniaux (1) , F. Lehmann (2) , Pascal Sailhac (1)

1 IPGS-GE - Géophysique expérimentale (IPGS)
2 LHyGeS - Laboratoire d'Hydrologie et de Géochimie de Strasbourg

Revil and Linde recently commented our paper concerning streaming potential (SP) measurements in unsaturated sand during drainage experiments. This comment suggests that the approach used to infer SP coefficients was inappropriate for unsaturated conditions, and therefore yielded wrong conclusions and 'unphysical' results regarding the behaviour of the relative SP coefficient. This reply argues that even if in Allègre et al. we neglected some secondary electrokinetic sources, the resulting conclusions are still representative of the behaviour of the true SP coefficient, and that the remarks of Revil & Linde arose from a misunderstanding of the drainage experiment conditions. We also find support for our results from a comparison between our observations and previous experimental studies.

Mots clés: Electrical properties; Hydrogeophysics; Hydrology; Permeability and porosity; Fracture and flow

Domaines: Géophysique [physics.geo-ph]; Géophysique [physics.geo-ph]; Milieux et Changements globaux

Vincent Allègre, Laurence Jouniaux, F. Lehmann, Pascal Sailhac. Reply to comment by A. Revil and N. Linde on 'Streaming potential dependence on water-content in Fontainebleau sand'. Geophysical Journal International, 2011, 186, pp.115-117. ⟨10.1111/j.1365-246X.2011.05038.x⟩. ⟨hal-00930076⟩