Field Work and Expeditions

Within the groups activities we will visit a number of exciting environments with diverse geological and geochemical characteristics. The aim is to collect data from diverse geodynamic and -tectonic settings. Different geodynamic settings provide us with different fluid (water and gas) genesis. Our sampling approach collects samples across large spatial scales or high-resolution sampling, to better understand teh different systems. These field works typically have a team of of scientists with similar backgrounds, sometimes the field team is joined by other researchers with diverse backgrounds and expertise.

Discovering the Carpathian Volcanism - September 2018 (RO)

In September 2018, 7 researchers, from 4 different countries set of from Cluj-Napoca (Romania) for a 10 day sampling expedition across the Easter-Carpathians Neogenic Volcanic belt. The sampling expedition entitled “Discovering the Carpathian Volcanism” is tried to answer key questions regarding carbon degassing and origin of fluids of the volcanic belt. The Eastern-Carpathians where selected because the volcanic centers show a high diversity of ages, spanning from millions to tens of thousands of years. The Carpathian volcanism having long time of inactivity, up to millions of years. Although in the region there are no more “active volcanism”, the region is considered being one of the highest CO2 degassing regions in Europe. It is the first detailed geochemical investigation of the geochemistry of fluids at regional scale in this sector of Europe that is characterized by volcanism and active tectonic.

The team visited 50 sites over 10 days, from the southernmost part of the volcanic range up to the northernmost one. In order to see how the volcanic gases interact with the other geological units (sedimentary basin to the west, flysch and metamorphic carbonates to the east), it have been selected some sampling points that fall in correspondence of the interaction between the volcanic systems and sedimentary and metamorphic complexes. The field team used different sampling protocols, for the different fluids, but also adapting their methods and procedures in order to solve some problems and collect fluids that are well representative and less contaminated by air.

The field team included Principal Investigator Artur Ionescu (Babes-Bolyai University, Romania; MTA-ELTE Volcanology Research Group, Hungary), Kyriaki Daskalopoulou (University of Palermo; National and Kapodistrian University of Athens), Sergio Calabrese (University of Palermo, Italy), Boglarka-Mercedesz Kis (MTA-ELTE Volcanology Research Group, Hungary; Babes-Bolyai University, Romania), Cristian Pop (Babes-Bolyai University, Romania) and Calin Baciu (Babes-Bolyai University, Romania). Antonio Caracausi (INGV Palermo), one of the principal investigators and promoters of the idea.

Thermal Karst of Herculane - March 2019 (RO)

In the Cerna Valley basin, located southwest of the Southern Carpathians, an aquifer complex has developed. The basin is strongly influenced by hydrogeothermal phenomena, acting within two major geological structures, the Cerna Syncline and the Cerna Graben. The complex consists mainly of Jurassic and Cretaceous carbonate rocks, as well as the upper part of the Cerna Granite that is highly fractured, tectonically sunken into the graben. The geothermal investigations have shown the existence of some areas with values of the geothermal gradient falling into the 110-200ºC/km interval, and temperatures of 13.8-16ºC at the depth of 30 m. The zone with the maximal flux intensity is situated between the Baile Herculane railway station and the Crucea Ghizelei Well, an area where 24 sources (10 wells and 14 springs) are known. The geothermal anomaly is also extended to the south (Toplet), north (Mehadia) and NE (Piatra Puşcată), a fact, which is stressed by the existence of hypothermal springs with low mineralization. At the entire thermo-mineral reservoir scale, the temperature of the water sources, the total mineralization, and the H2S and CH4 quantity are increasing from the north to the south, and the pH and natural radioactivity are following the same trend.

A small group journeyed to the thermal karst system of Baile Herculane (Romania). Our aim was to investigate this amazing geochemical system from a complex point of view: from the gases, to the water, to the minerals and up to the microbes. The team was made up from: the University of Perugia (Artur Ionescu), Babes-Bolyai University (Calin Baciu, Cristain Pop and Alin-Marius Nicula), INGV Palermo / University of Palermo (Daskalopoulou Kyriaki), ATOMKI Debrecen (Marjan Temovski and Kata Molnar) and by the Institute of Speleology Emil Racovita (Traian Brad and Aurel Persoiu).

Improving the estimation of tectonic carbon flux - Slovenia - May 2019 (SLO)

The project entitled “Improving the estimation of tectonic carbon flux” funded by the Deep Carbon Observatory had its first field work in the Balkans, more exactly in Slovenia. With the help of the Geological Survey of Slovenia (Geoloski zavod Slovenije) the joint team visited a total of 50 sites all over the country, spanning from thermal drilling’s, to mineral water wells to karst springs. Samples were collected for a multitude of parameters in order to investigate almost the full fluid geochemistry of the area.

Our biggest gratitude is for the Geological Survey of Slovenia for helping in the site selections, logistics and field support during these days. The team included: University of Perugia (Artur Ionescu and Carlo Cardellini), Babes-Bolyai University (Cristian Pop) and teh Geological survey of Slovenia (Nina Rman, Miroslav Medic, Katja Koren, Luka Seriaz, Zmago Bole, Tomislav Matoz and Sonja Cerar).

EDEN (Serbian Vardar Suture Zone) - the uncharted terrain - Serbia - June and November 2019 (SRB)

Central Serbia host more than 300 mineral water springs and wells. Some are cold while others are thermal reaching up to 80 degrees Celsius. From these sites until the present no real fluid geochemical studies were performed. This is the first time that from the Central Serbia, namely from the Vardar zone waters and gases where collected in order to investigated the composition and origin of the fluids. In the first part of the field work 68 occurrences were investigated from which water samples were collected. From these sites 34 were selected for sampling gases.

In 2019 a joint team composed of researchers from University of Perugia (Artur Ionescu), University of Belgrade (Petar Papic), Babes-Bolyai University (Cristian Pop), Geological Survey of Serbia (Goran Marinkovic), INGV Palermo (Walter D’Alessandro) and University of Palermo (Lorenza Li Vigni and Paolo Randazzo) travelled to Central Serbia in order to investigate this uncharted region. It is the first time that researchers are investigating the origin of these fluids in this area of the Balkans. Additionally the team visited the large karst springs of Western Serbia and the hyperalkaline springs of the Zlatibor Mountans. Based on the data the team tries to constrain the origin, amount of carbon released in the atmosphere, the origin of carbon and the associated gases (noble gases), and to create the first fluid geochemical model for Central Serbia

Macedonian Geogenic Carbon Degassing - North Macedonia - August 2019 (NMK)

The project entitled “Improving the estimation of tectonic carbon flux” funded by the Deep Carbon Observatory continued its field work in the Balkans, more exactly in North Macedonia. The field campaign was entitled “Macedonian Geogenic Carbon Degassing”. In August 2019 a joint team composed of researchers from University of Perugia (Artur Ionescu), ICER – ATOMKI (Marjan Temovski and Kata Molnar) and from INGV Palermo (Walter D’Alessandro and Lorenza Li Vigni) travelled to North Macedonia in order to investigate the carbon degassing. It is the first time that researchers are investigating the origin of carbon in this area of the Balkans. During there field work the team sampled water and also gases from thermal springs and boreholes all across the region, from the east all across the west. They were successful in sampling 31 sites, to constrain the origin of the fluids, and to quantify the amount of carbon released to the atmosphere. After this another 3 field works where caried out in March 2020, October 2022 and May 2024

Investigating Carbon Degassing in the Groundwaters of Croatia - Croatia - September and December 2019 (HR)

Croatia is situated at the junction of major European regions: Alps, Dinarides and the Pannonian Basin System. It is divided distinctively into two parts: the Pannonian part in the north–east and the Dinaridic part in the south–west. The north-eastern part of Croatia represents the south-western margin of the Pannonian Basin System, and the majority of Croatia’s geothermal potential is concentrated there. It is characterized by high average geothermal gradient and high surface heat flow. Conversely, the Dinaric part has low average geothermal gradient and low surface heat flow. Differences in geothermal traits are caused by the regional tectonic setting. In the west due to the tectonic settings the region is characterized by high flow karst springs.

In order to investigate the origin of the thermal fluids and also to estimate the carbon budget from both the thermal sources and karts springs in 2019 two field works where organized. In total 47 sites where investigated, 22 in the Dinaric karst and another 23 in the Pannonian part of Croatia. The joint team was composed of researchers from the University of Perugia (Carlo Cardellini and Artur Ionescu), University of Palermo (Paolo Randazzo), INGV Bologna (Giancarlo Tamburello) and the Croatian Geological Survey (Andrej Stroj and Borovic Stasa).

Mount Saint Helens Glacio Volcaninc Caves - Washington June/July 2021 (USA)

More people have been to the moon than have been in some of the places we explored in 2021 at Mount Saint Helenes! The goal of the expedition was to investigate the glacio-volcanic caves at Mount Saint Helens. In the first part of the journey with a small team, we investigated the springs at the Pumice Plain, at the base of the volcano. After this we joined the main team, going up together via helicopter to the old dome of Mt. Saint Helens, camping there for seven days. The experience was amazing, learned so much new things from the safety team, had great talks during the evenings with the science team. Its a place that only a handful of people ever visited, but also less had the opportunity to visit the rare caves that formed between the new dome and the glacial interface. Grateful that we the opportunity to visit and to do research at such an amazing place, most definitely an unique place on Earth, between the intersection of fire and ice! A big shout out to PBS, Harken Industrial, Cascade Rescue Company, Truewerk, NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration and Glacier Cave Explorers!

Ursu lake: The carbon mystery - August/November 2023 (RO)

The field works was to do a full holistic geochemical verticle profile of tehUrsu lake in Romania. It is teh bigest heliotehrmic and hypersaline lake in Europe, rich in CH4 and H2S as free and dissolved gas. the miocrobiogy is characterized as extremophiles. This is the first time that the full geochemistry will be investiagted both in water and gas phase. The team of teh two field works were from Babes-Bolyai University (Artur Ionescu), University of Florenece (Franco Tassi and Francesco Cappecchiacci), University of Perugia (Alessandra Ariano) and ATOMKI Debrecen (Laszlo Palcsu).

Thermal- and Mineral Waters of Shqiptare Regions; Fluid Geochemical Expedititon - May 2024 (AL-RKS-NMK)

“Thermal- and mineral waters of Shqiptare Regions” is a collaborative scientific project between INGV Palermo (Walter D’Alessandro), University of Palermo (Sergio Calabrese), Babes-Bolyai University (Artur Ionescu), University of Perugia (Carlo Cardellini), University of Mitrovica Isa Boletini (Sabri Abdullahi, Argjend Hajra and Edmond Pilana) and AtTOMKI Debrecen (Laszlo Palcsu) to investigate the origin of thermal and mineral waters across the Albanian (shqiptare in albanian) populated regions.

Thus in May 2024 a fluid geochemical expedition was undertaken in order to sample fluids (both gases and waters) from different manifestations (springs, hand-dug wells, boreholes and dry gas emanations) across a wide region spanning from the central-eastern part of Albania, the entire area of Kosovo and the south-western part of North Macedonia. For the Kosovan area it is the first time that researchers are investigating the origin of the thermal- and mineral waters and the associated gases in a holistic way, to have almost a complete chemical and isotopic data on the fluids.

The first part of the expedition was to meet up in Albania and to explore and sample site in the central-eastern part of the country, sampling fluids from springs and boreholes, both cold and thermal manifestations. The second part of the expedition took the team to Kosovo, were they meet up the local group, then travelling across the whole country to samples both cold and thermal emissions, spanning from acidic to hyperalkaline waters. During this fieldwork, it was for the first time that researchers are investigating the origin of the thermal- and mineral waters and the associated gases in a holistic way, to have almost a complete chemical and isotopic data on the fluids. The final part of the expedition took the team to the south-western part of North Macedonia, where they sampled gas from drillings and took additional gas measurements around dry gas emanations After the field work the team split-up to travel back to their home countries, bringing home a car full of samples for analyses, that will be divided between the laboratories. During the fieldwork, the joint team was successful in sampling 44 sites, spanning from cold to thermal manifestations, with fluids ranging from acidic till hyperalkaline!