Soil Gas and Flux Measurements from a CO2 Leak Site in Qinghai, China, 2014

An eight-day survey in 2014 characterized a surface CO2 leak from a failed well in Qinghai, China. Soil gas and flux measurements estimated a total emission rate of 649-1015 kgCO2/day and identified the source using gas ratios and carbon-13 isotopes. The data supports research on monitoring technologies for geological carbon storage sites.

Use Cases

• Validate soil gas monitoring techniques for leak detection based on the application of a process-based approach using gas component ratios.
• Model CO2 plume migration based on surface soil mineralisation patterns mentioned in the description.
• Estimate total field emission rates for surface leaks based on interpolated soil flux survey data.
• Assess spatial correlation between CO2 and H2O surface fluxes as described in the study.

Strengths

• Data is tied to a specific, real-world case study of a CO2 leak, providing a practical test scenario.
• Includes multiple survey methods (regular and irregular sampling grids, soil gas wells) for characterization.
• Provides concrete emission rate estimates (649-1015 kgCO2/d) and isotopic signatures (-0.21‰ and -0.22‰).

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data is from a single eight-day period in 2014; temporal scope is limited.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia Data

Collection Method

Soil gas and soil flux surveys conducted over an eight-day period.

Time Range

2014 (specific eight-day period)

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-25 17:03:13.667296; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Qinghai research site, west of Haidong, China