Evaporite karst in Sicily |
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| Authors: | V Liguori G Manno D Mortellaro |
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| Institution: | (1) Dipartimento di Ingegneria Strutturale e Geotecnica, Facoltà di Ingegneria, Palermo, Italia |
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| Abstract: | Karst areas are distributed over most of Sicily. The most widespread karst rocks are carbonates, particularly limestones,
but karst phenomena can also be seen in evaporites and particularly in salt mines. This report provides an overview of evaporite
karst in Sicily, along with a “case history” that shows some of the evaporite karst risks to the environment. In the centre
and south of Sicily, a thick sequence of Messinian evaporite rocks are subject to dissolution from meteoric and formation
waters. In areas where potassium salts and rock salts are being mined, some geomorphologic changes result from the drilling
of boreholes and the collapse of underground mines, thus lowering or collapsing the land surface. An example is the old salt
mine “Muti-Coffari”, situated in the commune of Cammarata, where there is a modification of the surface flow of the River
Platani. Meteoric waters and runoff flow down through a borehole, enter the underground mine cavity and dissolve the salts,
and then the resulting brine flows into a branch of the river, making it salty. Field investigations showed the presence of
salt along the edges and on the bed of the stream where it comes out of the cave. Therefore, interventions for risk mitigation
are necessary since the old mine constitutes a serious danger for damage or collapse of nearby infrastructures, and can lead
to degradation of the river ecosystem and the natural environment. |
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| Keywords: | Karst phenomena Evaporite karst Salt mining |
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