The Monte Corchia cave system, one of the most famous and popular caves in Italy, has in recent times been the subject of investigation on its speleothems as paleoclimate archives. This paper describes the geology, geomorphology and water chemistry of the cave system with the aim to elucidate the processes that have generated these speleothems and the properties they contain that are so useful for paleoclimatology. Some general conclusions can be drawn: i) the Corchia system is a cave developed over different altitudes during progressive uplift of the mountain chain in which it is located, probably under drainage conditions very different to those of the present. This has allowed the development of a large (ca. 60 km) and deep (-1187 m) karst system; ii) the dewatering phases have left the deepest chambers far away from clastic input and with long drip pathways; iii) the peculiar geological context has permitted the water to intercept and dissolve a significant source of U (still unknown) that facilitates radiometric dating; iv) in the last 1 Ma at least, no significant changes have occurred in the relief and in the epikarst, in the sense that speleothems have grown under very similar conditions. In addition the extremely low Ca concentration of drip waters have permitted low speleothem growth rates and, at least for the "Galleria delle Stalattiti", the zone under paleoclimate studies, a stable plumbing system (i.e. chemistry and stable isotopes of drip waters) has produced calcite close to isotopic equilibrium.

No abstract

12 springs from the northern Apennines of Italy were studied by means of a comprehensive hydrogeological investigation to unravel recharge processes taking place in a highly fractured slab of flysch rock hosting the corresponding aquifers. Several campaigns were carried out during the period 2005–2008 to gather springs’ discharge together with electrical conductivity and temperature data. Water samples were collected and allowed the determination of the major ions (Ca2+, Mg2+, Na+, K+, SO4 2−, HCO3 −, Cl−) and the isotopic content (δ18O). Additionally, groundwater discharge from 3 selected springs was measured continuously using pressure-transducers. Over the same period, reference δ18O values for rainfall and snow-melt water were collected monthly by a rain-gauge. Results highlighted an aquifer-like behavior of this slab of flysch rock. The springs are characterized by a Ca–HCO3 hydro-facies and an increase of groundwater mineralization has been noticed moving toward the base of the slab; the mean discharges are between 0.3 and 0.7 l·s−1 and suffered a marked variability during the year; the total maximum yield is about 155,000 m3 while the total discharge volume is around 320,000 m3·y−1. By processing the δ18O isotope values from springs (mean annual values ranged from −9.67 and −10.42 ‰) and by combining them with rainfalls datasets, results show that the main aliquot of recharge occurs in the winter—spring months and it is principally related to the solid precipitations (snow-melt)

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

both dissolved sulfate and sulfide have been included among the used geochemical tools to investigate the provenance of dissolved sulfur species and the active processes controlling their concentrations and isotopic ratios. The thermomineral waters discharged by the Terme Sibarite have been known and used therapeutically since Roman times, owing to the large flow rate, in the order of 130 L s-1 as whole (Arena, 1978). Up to now, they were the subject of regional geochemical studies, chiefly aimed at the surveillance of seismic activity (

No abstract