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Lookup NU author(s): Professor Rick Brassington
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Ten thermal springs occur in seven centres in Derbyshire, England with temperatures up to 27.5oC compared with an ambient groundwater temperature of about 9oC. The springs discharge from a karstic Dinantian limestone aquifer along the boundary with the overlying Namurian strata around the edge of a regional dome structure. The water is heated by deep circulation to as much as 1km with the hottest spring being at Buxton spring where the water is 5,000 years old. A comparison of flow data from the Buxton spring with groundwater hydrographs shows seasonality in the thermal flows suggesting that the loading effects produced by recharge are transmitted through this deep aquifer system. From a review of the geological history and the hydrogeology and the use of measurements on the Buxton spring it is suggested that the thermal flow system may have its roots in ancient convection cells possibly established in the deeply buried aquifer in late Carboniferous-Lower Permian times. Subareal erosion during the Pliocene removed the impermeable cap rocks and allowed both the thermally heated water to form warm springs and this deep groundwater circulation to be recharged by meteoric waters. The location of the individual springs is likely to date from the down-cutting during the Upper Pleistocene that formed the modern river valley topography.
Author(s): Brassington FC
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Quarterly Journal of Engineering Geology and Hydrogeology
Year: 2007
Volume: 40
Issue: 1
Pages: 35-46
ISSN (print): 1470-9236
ISSN (electronic): 2041-4803
Publisher: Geological Society Publishing House
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1144/1470-9236/05-046
DOI: 10.1144/1470-9236/05-046
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