L'émergence thermominérale

Mineral water springs

Institut de Géodynamique, Professeur, Université Michel de Montaigne, Bordeaux 3

Abstract

Considered schematically, the path followed by hot and mineral water as it rises from a deep reservoir to the spring in the plane of the ground surface is often a complex axis.

In every case studied, the assumption of a juvenile origin (originating in the ground) has today been abandoned in favour of a meteoric origin. Underground exploration has made it possible to construct illustrative geological models and, more recently, semi-quantitative models which take into account the terrestrial heat flux (the geothermal gradient), the residence time of ground water and, more rarely, the rock-water chemical exchanges at different temperatures.

In practice the result of the sum total of existing knowledge is an increasing tendency to replace the original natural water path by the artificial path of a direct borehole to the deep reservoir.

The outcome is improved control of mineral water quality and better performance from the shafts.