Hydrogeology and geochemistry of the sulfur karst springs at Santa Cesarea Terme (Apulia, southern Italy)
- PDF / 2,983,000 Bytes
- 18 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 4 Downloads / 172 Views
REPORT
Hydrogeology and geochemistry of the sulfur karst springs at Santa Cesarea Terme (Apulia, southern Italy) Ilenia M. D’Angeli 1 & Jo De Waele 1 & Adriano Fiorucci 2 & Bartolomeo Vigna 2 & Stefano M. Bernasconi 3 & Lee J. Florea 4 & Isabella S. Liso 5 & Mario Parise 5,6 Received: 18 April 2020 / Accepted: 16 November 2020 # The Author(s) 2020
Abstract This work describes the geochemical and hydrogeological characteristics of Santa Cesarea Terme, an active sulfuric acid speleogenetic system located along the Adriatic coastline (Apulia, southern Italy). It represents a very peculiar site, where rising thermal and acidic waters mix with seawater creating undersaturated solutions with respect to CaCO3, able to dissolve and corrode limestone and create caves. The Santa Cesarea Terme system is composed of four caves: Fetida, Sulfurea, Gattulla, and Solfatara. Hypogene morphologies and abundant deposits of native sulfur (especially in Gattulla Cave) and sulfate minerals are present in these caves. Fetida and Gattulla caves were investigated primarily because they are easily accessible throughout the whole year through artificial entrances, the other caves being reachable only from the sea. Geochemical analysis of water, monitoring of cave atmosphere, and measurement of the stable isotopes of S, O, and H helped to identify the main processes occurring in this complex cave system. In particular, changes in Ba2+ and Sr2+ concentration allowed for the identification of two main domains of influence, characterized by marine and rising acidic waters. Keywords Hypogene . Sulfuric acid speleogenesis . Marine influence . Karst . Italy
Published in the special issue “Five decades of advances in karst hydrogeology” * Mario Parise [email protected] Ilenia M. D’Angeli [email protected] Jo De Waele [email protected] Adriano Fiorucci [email protected] Bartolomeo Vigna [email protected] Stefano M. Bernasconi [email protected] Lee J. Florea [email protected] Isabella S. Liso [email protected]
1
Department of Biological, Geological and Environmental Sciences, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
2
Department of Territorial Engineering, of the Environment and of Geotechnologies, Technical University of Turin, Turin, Italy
3
Department of Earth Sciences, ETH of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
4
Indiana Geological & Water Survey, Bloomington, IN, USA
5
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy
6
National Research Council, Institute of Research for Geo-Hydrological Protection, Bari, Italy
Hydrogeol J
Introduction Sulfuric acid speleogenetic (SAS) systems are hypogene caves (i.e., influenced by rising acidic waters) and, in contrast to epigene caves (i.e., formed by infiltrating waters), they typically are less involved in surface processes. Hypogene speleogenesis from a hydrogeological standpoint has been defined as “the formation of solutional-enlarged permeability structure (void-conduit systems) by fluids that recharge the caver
Data Loading...
