Hydrology and geochemistry of thermal springs of the appalachians

Abstract

Main entry under title: Hydrology and geochemistry of thermal springs of the Appalachians,

Early-stage hypogene karstification in a mountain hydrologic system: A coupled thermohydrochemical model incorporating buoyant convection

“…Our conceptualization of the mountain hydrologic system (Figure 1) is consistent with the hydrogeologic setting and probable flow systems associated with several thermal spring systems in the Appalachians [Hobba et al, 1979;Severini and Huntley, 1983] and incorporates many of the generic features of hypogene carbonate rock environments described by Palmer [1991], Ford and Williams [2007], and Goldscheider et al [2010]. Flow in this mountain hydrologic system is driven by a sloping water table in a carbonate rock matrix, intersected by a permeable fracture zone at the middle of the valley.…”

“…However, we did not consider some other geologic and hydrogeologic features representative of other reported hypogene karst systems, such as mixed lithologies [e.g., Hobba et al, 1979, Ford and Williams, 2007, Klimchouk, 2009 and cross-formational flow systems [Klimchouk, 2009], which produce transverse speleogenesis in the sense of Klimchouk [2003]. To some extent, this was influenced by the computationally intensive nature of the simulations, which restricted the scope of our study.…”

“…One subset of hypogene karst systems is formed in settings where meteoric waters circulate to great depths and rise up along high-permeability vertical or subvertical fracture/ fault zones [Ford and Williams, 2007;Perry et al, 1979;Hobba et al, 1979;Severini and Huntley, 1983;Palmer, 1991;Goldscheider et al, 2010;Davidson et al, 2011]. Examples of karst systems of this category include karst springs in the Warm springs valley anticline in northwestern Virginia and other areas within the Appalachians [Hobba et al, 1979;Serevini and Huntley, 1983]; the Roszadomb thermal springs in Budapest, Hungary [Ford and Williams, 2007;Goldscheider et al, 2010]; the thermal springs of Bath, England [Andrews et al, 1982]; and cave systems of the southern Guadalupe mountains in New Mexico and Texas and Black Hills of South Dakota [Palmer, 1991;Ford and Williams, 2007;Bakalowicz et al, 1987].…”

“…For simplicity, and in the interest of maintaining a tractable scope for the paper, we did not consider multiple geologic units in the system above the basement rock. We acknowledge that many of the spring systems described by Hobba et al [1979] and hypogene cave systems described by Klimchouk [2009] involve cross-formational flow paths that cut across multiple geologic units. Our modeling approach can be extended readily to simulate karstification in limestone units that only comprise a part of the overall stratigraphy.…”

Control of regional structural styles and faulting on Northeast Mexico spring distribution

“…For example, elevated, relatively constant spring discharge is often indicative of relatively long flow paths of deep, regional groundwater flow systems (Eakin and Moore 1964). Similarly, spring discharge temperature above the mean annual air temperature is interpreted as deep groundwater circulation (Hobba et al 1979). Tritium dissolved in spring water has been used to evaluate aquifer residence time and flow processes, where very low tritium indicates deeper, In the Cuatrociénegas Basin, Wolaver et al (2008) measured spring discharge in spring-fed canals on the west and east flanks of the Sierra San Marcos to assess source aquifer characteristics.…”