TY - JOUR

T1 - Hydrogeochemistry and stable isotopes in radon-rich thermal waters of Belokurikha (Altai, Russia)

AU - Novikov, Dmitry A.

AU - Khvaschevskaya, Albina A.

AU - Kopylova, Yulia G.

AU - Pyryaev, Aleksandr N.

AU - Maksimova, Anastasia A.

AU - Derkachev, Anton S.

AU - Dultsev, Fedor F.

AU - Chernykh, Anatoliy V.

AU - Purgina, Daria V.

N1 - Funding Information: The work was supported by the Ministry of Science and Education of the Russian Federation under Projects No. FWZZ-2022-0014 and No.FSWW-0022-2020. Publisher Copyright: © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.

PY - 2022/11

Y1 - 2022/11

N2 - The first integrated isotope and chemistry results have been obtained for radon-rich thermal waters from the Belokurikha field which are used at a large spa resort in Altai, Russia. The waters reside in an unconfined aquifer composed of Quaternary soft sediments and in a confined (artesian) aquifer of monolithic to weathered Upper Paleozoic granites. The waters belong to three geochemical groups: low-radon nitrogen-silicic interstitial waters in weathered Paleozoic granites; groundwaters of REE-enriched and background compositions; surface waters of the Belokurikha River. The interstitial waters in granites have HCO3-SO4 Na and SO4-HCO3 Na major-ion chemistry, total salinity from 198 to 257 mg/L, pH = 8.6–9.6, silica contents of 19.8 to 24.6 mg/L, and 222Rn activity from 160 to 360 Bq/L (290 Bq/L on average). Judging by their oxygen and hydrogen (deuterium) isotope compositions (−17.5 to −14.2 ‰ and −126.9 to −102.7 ‰, respectively), the Belokurikha aquifers recharge with infiltrating meteoric water, especially the winter precipitation. The carbon isotope composition of dissolved inorganic carbon (−9.7 to −25.6 ‰ δ13СDIC) corresponds to biogenic origin. Comparison of radon-rich mineral waters from different areas of southern Siberia shows that the change from oxidized to reduced environments leads to 232Th/238U increase from 4.20∙10−5–7.39∙10−2 to 0.0022–26, respectively, with an intermediate range of 2.63∙10−5–0.20 in transitional conditions.

AB - The first integrated isotope and chemistry results have been obtained for radon-rich thermal waters from the Belokurikha field which are used at a large spa resort in Altai, Russia. The waters reside in an unconfined aquifer composed of Quaternary soft sediments and in a confined (artesian) aquifer of monolithic to weathered Upper Paleozoic granites. The waters belong to three geochemical groups: low-radon nitrogen-silicic interstitial waters in weathered Paleozoic granites; groundwaters of REE-enriched and background compositions; surface waters of the Belokurikha River. The interstitial waters in granites have HCO3-SO4 Na and SO4-HCO3 Na major-ion chemistry, total salinity from 198 to 257 mg/L, pH = 8.6–9.6, silica contents of 19.8 to 24.6 mg/L, and 222Rn activity from 160 to 360 Bq/L (290 Bq/L on average). Judging by their oxygen and hydrogen (deuterium) isotope compositions (−17.5 to −14.2 ‰ and −126.9 to −102.7 ‰, respectively), the Belokurikha aquifers recharge with infiltrating meteoric water, especially the winter precipitation. The carbon isotope composition of dissolved inorganic carbon (−9.7 to −25.6 ‰ δ13СDIC) corresponds to biogenic origin. Comparison of radon-rich mineral waters from different areas of southern Siberia shows that the change from oxidized to reduced environments leads to 232Th/238U increase from 4.20∙10−5–7.39∙10−2 to 0.0022–26, respectively, with an intermediate range of 2.63∙10−5–0.20 in transitional conditions.

KW - Ra

KW - Th

KW - U

KW - Belokurikha spa

KW - Stable isotopes

KW - Thermal water

KW - Environmental Monitoring

KW - Oxygen Isotopes/analysis

KW - Salinity

KW - Groundwater/chemistry

KW - Radon/analysis

KW - Mineral Waters

KW - Isotopes

KW - 238U

KW - 222Ra

KW - 232Th

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85132797136&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/77579577-eccc-3f80-bc66-d389837918a3/

U2 - 10.1007/s11356-022-21640-w

DO - 10.1007/s11356-022-21640-w

M3 - Article

C2 - 35761131

AN - SCOPUS:85132797136

VL - 29

SP - 83081

EP - 83098

JO - Environmental Science and Pollution Research

JF - Environmental Science and Pollution Research

SN - 0944-1344

IS - 55

ER -