The volcano-tectonic setting of the Eastern Carpathians: from detailed gas-geochemical surveys towards gas monitoring planning
- 1Babes-Bolyai University University, Faculty of Biology and Geology, Department of Geology, Cluj-Napoca, Romania (kisboglarka85@gmail.com)
- 2MTA-ELTE Volcanology Research Group, Eötvös University, Budapest, Hungary
- 3Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Sezione di Palermo, Palermo, Italy
- 4Institute for Nuclear Research, Eötvös Loránd Reseach Network, Debrecen, Hungary
- 5Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania, Faculty of Sciences and Arts, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
- 6Research Institute of Volcanology and Risk Assessment (IVAR), University of Azores, Ponta Delgada, Azores, Portugal
- 7Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra e del Mare, (DiSTEM), Universita di Palermo, Palermo, Italy
The Eastern Carpathians are characterized by CO2-dominated, intense, cold gas emissions starting from the Neogene to Quaternary volcanic structures, the youngest dormant volcano, Ciomadul, but occurring also quite far away from these, in the Cretaceous flysch units.
The gases are often transported to the surface through groundwater and appear in the form of bubbling mineral water springs. The major components of these cold gas emissions are: CO2, CH4, N2 and sometimes H2S. This is the most intensive degassing area from Romania. The gas emissions often appear in inhabited areas, representing a natural risk for locals.
In the recent years we performed detailed geochemical surveys, in which the chemical composition of the free gases, the origin of the different gas species and also the quantification of fluxes from diffuse emissions from the soil and dissolved gas was investigated. We have used different approaches and methods, starting with a specially designed Multi-GAS instrument for low-temperature gases, towards different monitoring experiments.
Our results show that the chemical and isotopic compositions of the investigated fluids throughout the Carpathians are strongly influenced by processes that characterize the geotectonic setting of the study area, such as the former volcanic activity and the subduction. In the present the occurrence of the gas emissions and the high flux areas are dependent on the tectonic structures, namely the nappe systems of the Carpathians and related faults, which represent a pathway for the deep fluids towards the surface.
All our investigations gave us a general view on the quantity, flux, geochemistry and origin of the fluids in the study area and helped us to select the most suitable and appropriate sites for future gas monitoring projects.
This work was supported by a grant of the Romanian Ministry of Education and Research, CNCS - UEFISCDI, project number PN-III-P1-1.1-TE-2019-1908, within PNCDI III, contract number TE 63/2020.
How to cite: Kis, B.-M., Caracausi, A., Palcsu, L., Szalay, R., Zsigmond, A.-R., Viveiros, F., Aiuppa, A., Randazzo, P., and Harangi, S.: The volcano-tectonic setting of the Eastern Carpathians: from detailed gas-geochemical surveys towards gas monitoring planning, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 24–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-9703, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-9703, 2023.
