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Hydrogeochemistry and stable isotopes in radon-rich thermal waters of Belokurikha (Altai, Russia)

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Abstract

The first integrated isotope and chemistry results have been obtained for radon-rich thermal waters from the Belokurikha field which are used at a large spa resort in Altai, Russia. The waters reside in an unconfined aquifer composed of Quaternary soft sediments and in a confined (artesian) aquifer of monolithic to weathered Upper Paleozoic granites. The waters belong to three geochemical groups: low-radon nitrogen-silicic interstitial waters in weathered Paleozoic granites; groundwaters of REE-enriched and background compositions; surface waters of the Belokurikha River. The interstitial waters in granites have HCO3-SO4 Na and SO4-HCO3 Na major-ion chemistry, total salinity from 198 to 257 mg/L, pH = 8.6–9.6, silica contents of 19.8 to 24.6 mg/L, and 222Rn activity from 160 to 360 Bq/L (290 Bq/L on average). Judging by their oxygen and hydrogen (deuterium) isotope compositions (−17.5 to −14.2 ‰ and −126.9 to −102.7 ‰, respectively), the Belokurikha aquifers recharge with infiltrating meteoric water, especially the winter precipitation. The carbon isotope composition of dissolved inorganic carbon (−9.7 to −25.6 ‰ δ13СDIC) corresponds to biogenic origin. Comparison of radon-rich mineral waters from different areas of southern Siberia shows that the change from oxidized to reduced environments leads to 232Th/238U increase from 4.20∙10−5–7.39∙10−2 to 0.0022–26, respectively, with an intermediate range of 2.63∙10−5–0.20 in transitional conditions.

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Funding

The work was supported by the Ministry of Science and Education of the Russian Federation under Projects No. FWZZ-2022-0014 and No.FSWW-0022-2020.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. A.A. Trofimuk Institute of Petroleum Geology and Geophysics, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia

    Dmitry A. Novikov, Anastasia A. Maksimova, Anton S. Derkachev, Fedor F. Dultsev & Anatoliy V. Chernykh

  2. Novosibirsk National Research University, Novosibirsk, Russia

    Dmitry A. Novikov, Aleksandr N. Pyryaev, Anastasia A. Maksimova, Anton S. Derkachev, Fedor F. Dultsev & Anatoliy V. Chernykh

  3. Engineering School for Natural Resources, Tomsk Polytechnical University, Tomsk, Russia

    Albina A. Khvaschevskaya, Yulia G. Kopylova & Daria V. Purgina

  4. V.S. Sobolev Institute of Geology and Mineralogy, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia

    Aleksandr N. Pyryaev

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  1. Dmitry A. Novikov
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  2. Albina A. Khvaschevskaya
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Albina A. Khvaschevskaya, Yulia G. Kopylova, Dmitry A. Novikov, Aleksandr N. Pyryaev, Anastasia A. Maksimova, Anton S. Derkachev, Fedor F. Dultsev, Anatoliy V. Chernykh, and Daria V. Purgina. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Dmitry A. Novikov and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Fedor F. Dultsev.

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Novikov, D.A., Khvaschevskaya, A.A., Kopylova, Y.G. et al. Hydrogeochemistry and stable isotopes in radon-rich thermal waters of Belokurikha (Altai, Russia). Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 83081–83098 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-21640-w

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