Hydrogeological and isotopic study of the multi-aquifer system of the Sibari Plain (Calabria, Southern Italy)

Giovanni Vespasiano (a), Carmine Apollaro (a), Luigi Marini (b), Rocco Dominici (a), Giuseppe Cianflone (a), Andrea Romanazzi (c), Maurizio Polemio (c) & Rosanna De Rosa (a)
(a) Dept. of Biology, Ecology and Earth Sciences (DIBEST), University of Calabria, via Ponte Bucci 4, cubo 15B, I-87036 Arcavacata di Rende (CS), Italy. E-mail: giovanni.vespasiano@unical.it (b) Luigi Marini, Consultant in Applied Geochemistry, Via A. Fratti 253, I-55049 Viareggio (LU), Italy (c) CNR – IRPI Bari , Address : VIA Amendola 122/I, Bari.

Geochemical study allowed to recognize four groups of groundwater for the Sibari Plain (Southern Italy): Ca–HCO3, Na–Cl, Ca–Cl and Na–HCO3. Chloride-rich waters are located close to the Crati mouth that could be a preferential path for seawater ingression. In fact, seawater and brackish waters could move inland along the stream channel and enter the nearby aquifers due to excessive pumping of wells positioned near the river. In alternative, the occurrence of processes, such as ion exchange or dissolution of halite-bearing Miocene evaporite deposits can generate aqueous solutions with similar characteristics to those produced by seawater ingression. Moreover, was calculated the infiltration average (Hi, m a.s.l.) for groundwater of the Sibari Plain by the following equations: The data showed a lower average of the infiltrations in the inner part of the Sibari Plain, with values between 550 and 870 m a.s.l., and higher values (1000/1500 m a.s.l.) moving to NW and SE.