Abstract
Karst aquifers, more than all others, are dynamic systems. There is a continuous chemical interaction between the moving groundwater and the carbonate wall rock. As a result of this, the internal porosity distribution and flow regimes of carbonate aquifers are continuously changing on a time scale of tens of thousands to millions of years. This phenomenon can be contrasted with silicate rock aquifers where there is indeed an influence of the aquifer wall rock on the chemistry of the moving groundwater, but there is relatively little change or at best an extremely slow change in permeability of the aquifer itself. Carbonate aquifers compensate for this problem by the accessibility with which the various types of water in the flow system can be sampled. Rather than simply depending on a well bore penetrating what one hopes is a representative location in the flow field, the direct exploration of the cave systems permits the analysis of many different inputs. It is therefore possible to understand the chemical evolution of the groundwater in carbonate aquifers in considerable detail.
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Hess, J.W., White, W.B. (1989). Chemical Hydrology. In: White, W.B., White, E.L. (eds) Karst Hydrology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-7317-3_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-7317-3_6
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