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Cernei Mountains: Caves Conveying Geothermal Fluids at Băile Herculane

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Cave and Karst Systems of Romania

Part of the book series: Cave and Karst Systems of the World ((CAKASYWO))

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Abstract

Several small caves located in the southwestern part of the South Carpathians discharge steam or/and chloride-rich hot groundwater derived from a geothermal reservoir situated nearby. The monitoring of natural tracers (heat, certain solutes, stable isotopes) documented uncommon levels for the fluids discharged within the Băile Herculane caves, thus revealing flow processes that ordinary meteoric-derived groundwater would be unable to depict. Furthermore, the exotic cave minerals and their isotopic composition suggest that the caves are the result of combination of hypogene and epigene processes. A rich and peculiar endemic troglobite fauna was identified in the Adam’s Shaft, in which a guano accumulation dated to ~8425 cal yrs BP suggests it is one of Europe’s oldest permanent bat colonies. The unusual warm/wet microclimate of the cave favored both an ideal roosting site for bats and a “tropical” biospeleological oasis.

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Acknowledgements

Parts of this work were supported by grants from the Romanian National Authority for Scientific Research, CNDI-UEFISCDI; PN-II-PT-PCCA-2011-3.1-1619 to MC and ID_544 to BPO). For their dedicated assistance provided during the field operations, Elisabeta Primejdie and Socrate Bucur are gratefully acknowledged. We also thank Floarea Răducă for her continuing support in the laboratory work and Dr. Victor Polyak for providing the U-series ages on gypsum speleothems.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. “Emil Racoviţă” Institute of Speleology of the Romanian Academy, Calea 13 Septembrie, 13, 050711, Bucharest 5, Romania

    Ioan Povară, Constantin Marin, Eugen Niţu & Alin Tudorache

  2. “Sabba Ştefănescu” Institute of Geodynamics of the Romanian Academy, 020032, Bucharest, Romania

    Horia Mitrofan & Mădălina Vişan

  3. Karst Research Group, School of Geosciences, University of South Florida, 4202 E. Fowler Ave, NES 107, Tampa, FL, 33620, USA

    Bogdan P. Onac

  4. “Emil Racoviţă” Institute of Speleology of the Romanian Academy, Clinicilor 5, 400006, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

    Bogdan P. Onac

  5. Department of Analytical Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Bucharest, 2-14 Bd. Regina Elisabeta, 030018, Bucharest, Romania

    Daniela Ioniţă

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  1. Ioan Povară
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  2. Horia Mitrofan
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  4. Constantin Marin
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Correspondence to Ioan Povară .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Groundwater Assessment Program, Geological Survey of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA

    Gheorghe M. L. Ponta

  2. School of Geosciences, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, USA

    Bogdan P. Onac

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Povară, I. et al. (2019). Cernei Mountains: Caves Conveying Geothermal Fluids at Băile Herculane. In: Ponta, G., Onac, B. (eds) Cave and Karst Systems of Romania. Cave and Karst Systems of the World. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90747-5_25

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