Oak Ridge National Laboratory | Critical Zone Exploration Network

Group:

Location

35° 57' 50.832" N, 84° 16' 57.36" W

Brief Site Description:

ak Ridge National Laboratory is the largest US Department of Energy science and energy laboratory, conducting basic and applied research to deliver transformative solutions to compelling problems in energy and security.

Detailed Site Description:

NEON

Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is located at the U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge Reservation in Roane County, Tennessee. The ORNL reservation is situated within the borders of five parallel ridges and valleys to the north of the Clinch River that are part of the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians physiographic province (Environmental Sciences Division n.d.). The NEON tower site and Walker Branch aquatic site at ORNL are located within the Walker Branch Watershed, a 100 ha area that has served as the site for long-term environmental studies by the Environmental Sciences Division at ORNL, NOAA, and many visiting university researchers. (NEON)

DOE SFA

Since its inception in 2010, the Mercury Science Focus Area (SFA) led by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)—formally known as the Biogeochemical and Molecular Mechanisms Controlling Contaminant Transformation in the Environment project—has made substantial progress in fulfilling its overarching research aim: elucidating the mechanisms by which inorganic mercury is transformed into methylmercury at the sediment-water interface and the processes that determine net methylmercury production in contaminated sites.

The project is supported by DOE’s Office of Biological and Environmental Research (BER), within DOE’s Office of Science, as part of BER’s Subsurface Biogeochemical Research (SBR) program.

Field Site Type:

US affiliate

Registration:

Unregistered

Network(s):

DOE

NEON

Study Start Date:

1943

Mean Annual Precipitation:

1 510 millimeters / year

Average Annual Temperature:

15°C

Average Summer Temperature:

25°C

Average Winter Temperature:

4°C

Land Cover:

Developed- Low

Deciduous Forest

Agriculture- Pasture

Geology:

carbonate

other sedimentary

Soil Order:

Ultisol

Hydrology: Name:

Walker Branch

Hydrology: Surface water stream order:

First Order

Hydrology: Surface water - Stream Flow Performance:

Perennial

Hydrology: Groundwater:

Arrangment of Aquifer Components - Single, dominant unconfined aquifer

Climate:

Temperate

Sub-Climate:

Humid

Group visibility:

Public - accessible to all site users