Eaux fortement minéralisées et circulations profondes dans le socle. Exemple des Alpes franco-italiennes

The presence in the French–Italian Alps of several springs characterized by a high sodium–chloride content, depleted in oxygen-18, tritium free and with low carbon-14 activity, is well known. The geological, hydrological, and geochemical studies in progress for the new high-speed railway tunnel crossing the French–Italian Alps, show, in the drilled boreholes at a mean elevation of 700 masl, the presence of brines. Brines appear to be the basis of the geological, structural, and hydrodynamic systems, and fill the largest faults and the main tectonic contacts. The brines squeezed by tectonic activity, are mobilised at depth by freshwaters from the surface. To cite this article: G.-M. Zuppi et al., C. R. Geoscience 336 (2004).     

A high-resolution modelling study of the Turkish Straits System

High-resolution modelling, for the first time, is used to study the basic hydrodynamics of the Turkish Straits System (TSS). Hydraulic controls in the Bosphorus and Dardanelles Straits are found to be essential in determining the coupled response of the TSS, which directly influences the interaction between the Mediterranean and Black Seas. The mixed baroclinic—barotropic response of the system is investigated as a function of the net barotropic flux and density stratification imposed at external boundaries, in the absence of atmospheric and tidal effects. The intense surface jet issuing from the Bosphorus is found to drive the basin-wide circulation of the Marmara Sea, varying with the net flux. The temporal response of the Bosphorus and Dardanelles Straits picks up rather fast, within a day or two, thanks to hydraulic controls within straits, while the surface currents in the Marmara Sea only approach steady state after a few months. Model stratification and circulation features are validated against independent measurements and a stand-alone model of the Bosphorus.     

Coincident application of a mass balance of radium and a hydrodynamic model for the seasonal quantification of groundwater flux into the Venice Lagoon, Italy

A mass balance of the naturally occurring short-lived radium isotopes (^223,224Ra) in the Venice Lagoon was conducted by an integrated approach combining the directly estimated individual Ra contributions and hydrodynamic model results. Hydrodynamic data allows for the calculation of the Ra mass balance in sub-sections of the Venice Lagoon (boxes), which are characterized by physically homogeneous properties, instead of investigating the entire lagoon. Utilizing this method, both the seasonal and the spatial variability of the submarine groundwater discharge in the Venice Lagoon have been estimated. Between 14–83 × 10⁹ L d^− 1 of water were calculated to flow across the sediment–sea interface, corresponding to 5–28 times the mean annual river input. The submarine groundwater discharge estimates were correlated with the residence time calculation to better understand spatial and seasonal variation.     

An atmosphere–ocean regional climate model for the Mediterranean area: assessment of a present climate simulation

We present an atmosphere–ocean regional climate model for the Mediterranean basin, called the PROTHEUS system, composed by the regional climate model RegCM3 as the atmospheric component and by a regional configuration of the MITgcm model as the oceanic component. The model is applied to an area encompassing the Mediterranean Sea and compared to a stand-alone version of its atmospheric component. An assessment of the model performances is done by using available observational datasets. Despite a persistent bias, the PROTHEUS system is able to capture the inter-annual variability of seasonal sea surface temperature (SST) and also the fine scale spatio-temporal evolution of observed SST anomalies, with spatial correlation as high as 0.7 during summer. The close inspection of a 10-day strong wind event during the summer of 2000 proves the capability of the PROTHEUS system to correctly describe the daily evolution of SST under strong air–sea interaction conditions. As a consequence of the model’s skill in reproducing observed SST and wind fields, we expect a reliable estimation of air–sea fluxes. The model skill in reproducing climatological land surface fields is in line with that of state of the art regional climate models.     

Groundwater connections under a barrier beach: A case study in the Venice Lagoon

The flow of groundwater beneath barrier islands has been cited as a possible pathway for salt water and chemical exchange between a protected embayment and the open sea. Evidence is presented that identifies an exchange of groundwater through a highly permeable paleoinlet along the barrier beach of Cavallino, which separates the northern Venice Lagoon from the Adriatic Sea. We utilized both point measurements of submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) and a geophysical investigation of the subsurface resistivity to analyze the movement of saline groundwater. Discharge of groundwater and associated nutrients, was higher at the site of a former inlet than at a similar site along the barrier and modulated by the difference in tidal water level between the lagoon and Adriatic Sea. If the measured conditions are typical, storm surge barriers could potentially result in a saline groundwater flow of up to 1.5×10⁶ m³ d⁻¹ into the lagoon.     

The sedimentary coastal basin of Togo: example of a multilayered aquifer still influenced by a palaeo-seawater intrusion

In Togo, the hydrogeology of the sedimentary coastal aquifers along the Gulf of Guinea has been studied for the last three decades to define the recharge processes and the origin and evolution of the salinity. Isotope hydrology and fluid geochemistry suggest that the current recharge of all aquifers, both confined and unconfined, occurs through the crystalline basement and the Plio-Quaternary deposits. Two main groundwater mineralization processes are observed: the first one, in recharge areas, is due to farming, village and city life and concerns unconfined aquifers (crystalline basement, Continental Terminal and Quaternary sediments); the second one is a mixing process between recent freshwater and fossil saline water still present in the deep confined aquifers inland, several kilometers away from the coast. Brackish water was trapped in low-permeability lenses of confined aquifers (Eo-Palaeocene and Maastrichtian) during the Quaternary, in periods of low recharge, notably during the last glacial maximum (LGM), and has not yet been flushed out. Hydrodynamic simulations indicate that, at that time, the aquifers experienced a maximum seawater intrusion as far as 20–22 km inland, depending on the palaeo-recharge value at the outcrops.