A contribution of CO2 released from mineral springs into overall volume of annual CO2 emissions in the Slovak Republic

Complex geological and tectonic structure of the Western Carpathians within the Slovak territory has conditioned generation of abundant mineral springs (1782), with various levels of mineralization and chemical types. Many of them possess a high content of CO2 and therefore they may be considered as permanent point sources of CO2. They are a part of natural analogues. Due to this fact, an approximate estimation of overall annual volume of CO2 has been carried out. However, such seemingly simple calculation requests an introduction of necessary corrections, professional estimates and some limitations based on knowledge and practical experience from a long-term monitoring. The final result of this process of all considered sources provided volume of around 4 Mt of CO2 year−1. This amount represents annual CO2 emission of standard thermal power plant (ca 500 MW) and creates practically 10 % of the annual Slovak CO2 production. It means that the volume of CO2 produced from mineral springs is not a negligible item and may create remarkable share of aggregated emissions in countries of similar geological and hydrogeological structure. That is why, it should be included in the emission evaluation of the countries concerned.