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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Evaporite karst in Sicily

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Karst areas are distributed over most of Sicily. The most widespread karst rocks are carbonates, particularly limestones, but karst phenomena can also be seen in evaporites and particularly in salt mines. This report provides an overview of evaporite karst in Sicily, along with a “case history” that shows some of the evaporite karst risks to the environment. In the centre and south of Sicily, a thick sequence of Messinian evaporite rocks are subject to dissolution from meteoric and formation waters. In areas where potassium salts and rock salts are being mined, some geomorphologic changes result from the drilling of boreholes and the collapse of underground mines, thus lowering or collapsing the land surface. An example is the old salt mine “Muti-Coffari”, situated in the commune of Cammarata, where there is a modification of the surface flow of the River Platani. Meteoric waters and runoff flow down through a borehole, enter the underground mine cavity and dissolve the salts, and then the resulting brine flows into a branch of the river, making it salty. Field investigations showed the presence of salt along the edges and on the bed of the stream where it comes out of the cave. Therefore, interventions for risk mitigation are necessary since the old mine constitutes a serious danger for damage or collapse of nearby infrastructures, and can lead to degradation of the river ecosystem and the natural environment.