The use of deuterium as natural tracer to point out groundwater flow from karst area. Case study

摘要

As a distinctive fingerprint of the water source and relatively conservative in reactions with carbonate catchment materials (in low temperature areas and without methane, deuterium has been used to establish the flowpath and the mechanisms responsible for the groundwater flow in the karst located in the vicinity of the Danube Delta ecosystem. The spatial variation and the sets of isoconcentration lines for the average deuterium content correlated with the water type and its origin were the analytical tools to analyse the groundwater flowpath, recharge and discharge area in the study area. The local recharging and discharging areas, the discharging area for isotopically light water that intrudes in lawland, the most probably flow lines of groundwater, and the four hydrological substructures of the study area are the preliminary information provided by deuterium data.