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The St. Moritz Mauritius mineral spring (Upper Engadine Valley, SE Switzerland): review of its importance by the joint facts of geological occurrence, archeology, health effects, chemical properties, and long-term chemical stability

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A Correction to this article was published on 27 July 2023

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Abstract

The St. Mauritius mineral spring has been used since the late Bronze Age times (1410/1411 BC), as dated on the wooden headworks using radiocarbon and tree ring (dendrochronology) methods. It became eminent during the late Middle Ages epoch of curative treatments. The water is renowned for its high iron content and high amounts of dissolved and gaseous CO2. This special character of the Mauritius spring made it attractive to be analyzed by esteemed chemists over more than two centuries. By these analyses transferred in coherent units, a comparison of the chemical composition of this Mauritius mineral spring during the entire interval from 1788 to 2022 became possible. It reveals that the chemical composition of the Mauritius mineral spring water has largely remained stable and apart from some minor changes in water quality caused by alterations to the spring capture headworks since that time. These capture remediation actions were aimed to maintain the original composition of the Mauritius mineral spring water, which since its first utilization is threatened by the prevailing mixing processes with the shallow, low mineralized groundwater. The mineral water can be characterized as being an acidic calcium–sodium–magnesium–bicarbonate-type water, rich in iron, with a total mineralization of about 1.8 g/l. The spring discharge with a temperature of about 4–6 °C and contains about 2500 mg/l of free gaseous carbon dioxide. This high concentration of free outgassing of CO2 is due to the emission of this gas from a great depth from the Engadine Fault Line which crosses the spring discharge area.

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Fig. 1

© Swisstopo2008).  Position of St. Moritz,  trace line of the cross-section in Fig. 2

Fig. 2

© swisstopo 2008). Also shown is the position of the Engadine Fault Line/EFL (scale: approximate horizontal extent 300 km, vertical 40 km)

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(Adapted from Oberhänsli 2017, Abb. 139, Copyright, and permission: Archäologischer Dienst Graubünden)

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Data availability

The used chemical data as represented in table 2 are included in the referenced publications according to References Part 1 and are included in a not yet published compendium of analyses of the St. Mortiz Mauritius spring by E. Piatti et al.

Change history

References

References Part 1: Bibliography of the analyses of the Mauritius spring water and some also important notes about the methods applied in early chemical analyses

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the collaborators of the City of St. Moritz, especially Mr. H. Denoth, as also Mr. B. Lüscher of the construction department and municipal water supply of St. Moritz for their support of the Mauritius spring facilities and site properties. Great thanks are expressed to Dr. Heini Hofmann for the permission to use figures and photos from his book publications. Also, our expression of gratitude goes to Mrs. Simone Wölfli of the Swiss topographical survey (Figs. 1 and 2), to Dr. Roger Heinz, editor of the Swiss Bulletin für Angewandte Geologie (Fig. 3), to Mrs. Dr. Monika Oberhänsli for the permission of publication of Figs. 4 and 5, and Mr. Michael Stünzi of Fig. 7, to Mrs. Prisca Binkert of the St. Moritz Library and Documentation center for Fig. 11. We thank also the technical staff of the forum Paracelsus for the access to the Museum and exhibition. Especially we thank Dr. Fanny Leuenberger and Matthäus Balderer for the scientific and English corrections, the important suggestions, the scientific review, and the comments on the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Geological Institute, Department of Earth Science, ETH Zurich, Einsiedlerstrasse 72, 8810, Horgen, Switzerland

    Werner Paul Balderer

  2. Via Alle Vigne 4, 6924, Sorengo, Switzerland

    Enrico Piatti

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  1. Werner Paul Balderer
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Contributions

The first author designed the aspects of the study in conception, historical aspects, chemical and hydrogeological interpretation as presented, and editing of the whole manuscript. All drafts and the final version of the manuscript were written by Werner Balderer. The merit of the second author (Enrico Piatti) consists of the collection of all old chemical analyses in the literature of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries up to the present day in retrieving libraries and archives. He was also building a consistent database including the transformation into the appropriate chemical units.

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Correspondence to Werner Paul Balderer.

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Werner Paul Balderer: Retired.

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Balderer, W.P., Piatti, E. The St. Moritz Mauritius mineral spring (Upper Engadine Valley, SE Switzerland): review of its importance by the joint facts of geological occurrence, archeology, health effects, chemical properties, and long-term chemical stability. Environ Earth Sci 82, 233 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-023-10800-x

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