Karstbase Bibliography Database

Hypogenic karst development by means of the aggressiveness of hydrothermal fluids driven and fed by mantle heat and mass flux is a known phenomenon. However, in cases when hydrothermal fluid cools down upon thermal conduction in the near-surface environment and is diluted by near-surface cool groundwater, evidences of this phenomenon may be erased completely. Recent data on the isotopes of helium dissolved in cool karst groundwater samples collected from three different karst aquifers in Turkey suggest an apparent mass flux from mantle, as well as from the crust. In the cases considered, helium content from the mantle increases with the increasing age of groundwater. All cases are located nearby the suture zones which may be easing the upward heat and mass flux. Despite sampling difficulties and high analysis costs, helium isotopes dissolved in cool karst groundwater seem to be useful tool to detect the current hypogenesis at the depths of karst aquifers