Complex groundwater flow circulation in a carbonate aquifer: Mount Massico (Campania Region, Southern Italy). Synergistic hydrogeological understanding

Abstract This paper deals with an integrated approach to identify and evaluate the groundwater flow in a carbonate mountain where no springs are present. The study area is Mount Massico, which is a carbonate horst located in the Campania Region (southern Italy) where the carbonate mountains host the main water supply for the populations. At the foot of Mount Massico, there are also mineral and thermo-mineral waters; they are of meteoric origin and enriched with endogenous gases and faults controlled. For some of these waters, a conceptual mineralization model was proposed that is significantly different from the models used for most of the mineral waters in the Campania Region. Groundwater temperatures (from 35° to 50 °C) make also the area of great interest for thermo-mineral resources. Moreover, this study proposes a comparison between methods for evaluating the groundwater budget: the classical method and the APLIS, which is an empirical method for estimating the groundwater recharge of carbonate aquifers. In this case, the research indicates that these two methods produce almost identical results.