Recharge and Retention Time Study of a Partly Karstified Area of Boč (Eastern Slovenia) Using Hydrogen, Oxygen and Carbon Isotope Composition as Natural Tracers

Abstract

The study is focused on the dolomite-limestone drinking water aquifers in the Boč massif, as well as on the andesite-aquifer containing mineral water in the vicinity of Rogaška Slatina. The catchment area is limited and both drinking and mineral waters are discharged from the same source. The increasing use of deeper aquifers means that natural springs and shallow wells have become sporadic. Consequently new techniques of investigating recharge and aquifer capacity are required which can augment classical hydrogeological methods. Current research into the mineral and drinking water aquifers in the area of Rogaška Slatina is based on measuring the isotopic composition of light elements, (H, C and O) as natural tracers. It can be concluded that all the groundwaters investigated are typically infiltrated meteoric water. The drinking waters are generally young and were infiltrated up to about ten years ago. The isotopic composition of oxygen is similar to recent precipitation (δ18O = -9.3 ± 1‰) and the drinking waters contain tritium. It was found that exploited mineral waters recharged aquifers during colder periods; they are only partly mixed with younger water as can be seen from the isotopic composition of oxygen and corrected 14C dating, which puts the mean ages at between around 100 and 8,000 years. With regard to the “nuclear period” (1960-64) with abnormally high tritium activities of precipitation, all the waters examined can be divided into at least three main infiltration groups depending on their measured tritium content: around 35 years old (> 80 T.U.), older (> 10 T.U.) and younger (10 to 60 T.U.). Detailed dating is possible following the above classification. Isotope exchange between rocks and water is negligible and therefore very deep circulation at the temperature conditions above 80°C does not occur. Dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) in the drinking waters is the result of equilibrium reactions between carbonates and organically produced CO2 (δ13C = - 14.5 ± ‰), while the high concentrations of DIC (δ13C = + 3 ±‰) and CO2 observed in the mineral waters are generated by low-temperature decarbonatization processes and indicate the deep origin of CO2, from where gas migrates into mineral water aquifers. Correlation analyses between the parameters studied are performed. Useful conclusions concerning water circulation and the capacities of aquifer reservoirs are described which support the future optimal pumping of mineral and drinking water at the limited catchment area of Rogaška Slatina and Boč.