Investigation Concerning Influence of Seismic Activity on the Regime of Hydrothermal Deposit Pchelinski Bani, Bulgaria
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
BALWOIS 2004 Ohrid, FY Republic of Macedonia, 25-29 May 2004 Investigation Concerning Influence Of Seismic Activity On The Regime Of Hydrothermal Deposit Pchelinski Bani, Bulgaria Boryana Yordanova Deneva PhD student, University of Mining and Geology "St. Ivan Rilski" Sofia, Bulgaria Abstract Pchelinski Bani hydrothermal deposit located in the central western part of Bulgaria. It is a hydrogeological structure of a fissure-vein type. The terrain in the investigated area is built up mainly by granodiorites. The investigations on the thermal water regime have been carried out on the basis of an analysis of data obtained from regime observations on the thermal spring discharge for a 28-year period and from observations on the water level in a monitoring borehole for a 20-year period. The analysis of the data has shown that the spring discharge decreases sharply, even in some cases the outflow has totally stopped for few hours, after earthquakes with a magnitude over 3.8 according to the Richter scale, occurring on the territory of Bulgaria and its neighboring countries. Key words: thermal water; earthquakes; Balkan Peninsula. Introduction Pchelinski Bani hydrothermal deposit is located in the central western part of Bulgaria. The main water source is the captured thermal spring also known as "Pchelin" captation. The spring has an expressed postseismic reaction – there is a sharp decrease in its discharge immediately after strong earthquakes, occurring both on the territory of Bulgaria and its neighboring countries. The water from the hydrothermal deposit is determined as fresh - with mineralization 0.92 – 0.98 g/l, hyperthermal (72.8ºC), sulfate sodium by composition with slightly alkaline reaction (pH up to 8.0). The contents of metasilic acid, fluoride and radon respectively are: up to 112 mg/l; up to 10 mg/l and 110 ÷ 120 Em (407 ÷ 444 Bq/l. Nitrogen dominates among the gases diluted in the water - 96.7 volume %, followed by argon (1.7 vol.%) and helium (0.25 vol.%). Pchelinski Bani hydrothermal deposit was included in many regional geological investigations. A. Boué in 1884 gives the first information about the geology of this region. Later on, the famous Bulgarian scientists G. Zlatarski in 1893 and G. Bonchev in 1968 have investigated the region. The latest results from the geological mapping of the region are summarized by Iliev & Katskov (1990, 1993) on the Geological map of Bulgaria in scale 1: 100 000 – map sheet Ihtiman. A hydrogeological investigation of the region has been carried out in the period 1965-1967. Its main purpose was to increase the mineral water yield. K. Shterev (1964) and P. S. Petrov et al. (1970) investigated the hydrothermal deposit. Full hydrogeological characteristic of the hydrothermal deposits from the Dolna Banya thermal water basin, including also that of Pchelinski Bani, was made in the paper of Pentchev et al. (2003). The investigation on the regime of the hydrothermal deposit and the assessment of its exploitation resources was made in the paper of Zahariev Deneva (2003). P. Petrov (1983) who has studied the consequences of the earthquake in Vrancea, Romania in 1977 on groundwater regime in different hydrogeological structures of Bulgaria, has provided the first purposeful investigation on the post-seismic reaction of the Pchelinski Bani hydrothermal deposit. As a result, one of the constructed boreholes (Borehole N2) has been equipped as a seismo- hydrogeological observation station with a continuing water level recorder. This report presents an attempt in the investigation of the impact of seismic events, occurring on the territory of Bulgaria and its neighboring states, on the regime of hydrothermal deposit Pchelinski Bani. The investigation is based on the analysis of data obtained from regime observations on the thermal spring discharge and the fluctuations of the water level in the monitoring borehole, standing near to the spring. Geological and hydrogeological conditions Pchelinski Bani hydrothermal deposit is located in the northern part of a larger hydrogeological structure, named as Dolna Banya thermal water basin. The basin encompasses Dolna Banya valley Water bodies protection and Ecohydrology 1 BALWOIS 2004 Ohrid, FY Republic of Macedonia, 25-29 May 2004 and slopes of surrounding mountains - northern slopes of Rila mountain and southern Sredna Gora mountain (Pentchev et al., 2003). On the territory of the investigated region Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Neozoic formations are found. Basic collectors of thermal water are granodiorites of the Gucal pluton (guγδK2), which outcrop within the region of Gutzal and Pchelin villages. The pluton is built of large-grain granodiorite, leuco – to mesocratic with massive texture whose mineral composition includes plagioclase, potassium feldspath, quartz, amphibole, biotite, apatite, titanite, sericite, epidot. The pluton age is determined to 72.5 million years (Katskov et al., 1993). The hydrothermal deposit belongs to a regional tectonic structure, known as the Maritsa fault, which divides the Rhodopes massif from the Sredna Gora Mountain. Its width is about 10 - 20 km. It represents a deep fault, composed of a series of sub-parallel, mainly vertical south-verging faults, where the northern slope of the Rhodopes massif is slipped. The Maritsa deep fault is one of the zones with the most active seismic activity for the territory of Bulgaria. In the region of the hydrothermal deposit, thermal water outflows in the intersection zone of two fault systems. Initially, mineral water has been drained by several small springs at an elevation of 632.6 m a.s.l., coming out from a 3 to 10 m wide fault of east-west direction and steep incline to the south. The springs have appeared at the place where the fault is intersected by transverse tectonic fissures of northeast orientation. The open part of the fault is filled with cavernous tectonic breccia from granodiorite fragments that are intensively changed, covered and fused by ferrous hydroxides, zeolites and other materials, deposited by thermal waters (Zahariev Deneva, 2003). The springs were captured in a general captation shaft in 1937. Their total discharge before the capturing amounted to 11.17 l/s and then to 11.7 l/s at temperature of the water 73ºC. Three hydrogeological boreholes - NN 1, 2 and 3 were drilled close to the thermal spring during 1965-1967. Their depths are respectively: 497 m, 348.9 m and 350.3 m passing entirely into granodiorites. Only two of the boreholes had crossed the thermal zone but no artesian flow was obtained as a result. In the course of the hydrogeological studies, experimental tests of these boreholes have been made. During the experimental water pumping, the discharge of the thermal spring has decreased and at its end the outflow has completely stopped. The discharge reached its initial values following a period of a month and a half. Borehole N1 has been liquidated after the end of the surveying works. Borehole N3 was adapted for pumping exploitation. In 1982, Borehole N2, which was situated at a distance of 44 m north-east from the thermal spring, has been equipped with a continuous level recorder by the National Institute of Hydrology and Meteorology at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. Nowadays the main water source in the hydrothermal deposit is the captured thermal spring known as "Pchelin" captation. Mineral water flows out at an elevation of 632.9 m. During the last 10 years, the spring discharge was varying around 8.8 l/s. Information base The investigation of the seismic activity impact on the thermal water regime is carried out empirically - on the basis of an analysis of data obtained from regime observations on the spring discharge and the observations of water level fluctuations in Borehole №2. The regime observations on the spring discharge cover a period of 28 years, 1975 - 2003. The data obtained from water level observations are collected for a 20-year period, 1983 - 2003. Regular regime discharge observations have been made by the Specialized Hospital for Rehabilitations in Momin prohod during 1977-2000. They have been carried out with changing frequency. Up-to-date measurements of the discharge of the thermal spring were made by the author in August 2001, March and December 2003. Data obtained from the continuing level recorder in Borehole №2 encompass the period 01.01.1983 - 31.09. 1990. Since September 1990, when the recorder has been damaged, the observations have been carried out once a week. National Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology gave up the data available for this investigation. The values are average per month. Due to the lack of comparable data for individual periods of time, the correlation between the spring discharge and water level fluctuations is difficult to be determined at this first stage of investigation. Water bodies protection and Ecohydrology 2 BALWOIS 2004 Ohrid, FY Republic of Macedonia, 25-29 May 2004 Results and discussion Graphical interpretation of the data obtained from regime observations on the thermal spring discharge for a period of 28 years (1975 – 2003) is represented on Figure 1. There are several extremely low discharge values. The reference shows that these values were measured immediately after earthquakes occurring on the territory of Balkan Peninsula. Data for discharge variations and provoking earthquakes are summarized in Table 1. Locations of the epicenters of the earthquakes which had affected the thermal spring discharge are visualized on Figure 2. Table 1 Discharge variations and corresponding