Sources of sulfur in Piedmont Springs, National Historic Site, Grimes County, Texas /
The Piedmont Springs National Historic Site was an important health resort in Texas before and during the Civil War. It is composed of three springs: 1) Black spring - considered to be the strongest, used to treat ailing feet; 2) Middle spring intermediate in strength, used for immersion, and 3) Wh...
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| Format: | Thesis Book |
| Language: | English |
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[Place of publication not identified] :
[publisher not identified] ;
19934.
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| Summary: | The Piedmont Springs National Historic Site was an important health resort in Texas before and during the Civil War. It is composed of three springs: 1) Black spring - considered to be the strongest, used to treat ailing feet; 2) Middle spring intermediate in strength, used for immersion, and 3) White spring - most mild, used for internal ailments. The source of the smell of H2S gas along with the occurrence of these three springs with variable water chemistries all within a distance of four hundred feet and all apparently discharging from the same aquifer was not well understood. The geologic units associated with the springs are Upper Eocene in age and consist of stacked deltaic sequences that are restricted to the upper part of the Manning Formation of the Jackson Group. Oxidation of pyrite which is present in significant quantities both in the overburden above a locally continuous lignite deposit and within the lignite itself is responsible for the high sulfate contents (600-700 ppm) in the ground water discharging at the springs. This contention is supported by chemical equilibrium calculations that have shown the aquifer waters to be oversaturated with respect to several ferric oxyhydroxides that are expected to be produced by the release of iron during pyrite oxidation. Stratigraphic correlation and field investigation has revealed the presence of several normal faults in the vicinity of the springs. One of the major faults identified in this study is located immediately underneath the springs, trending NE-SW parallel to strike, with the downthrown side being to the northwest. The fault cuts a deeper sand below the lignite where anaerobic conditions prevail and where sulfate is actively being reduced to H2S gas. Ground-water geochemical data plotted on Piper Trilinear Diagrams have shown this deeper anaerobic aquifer to have different water chemistries on either side of the fault in the vicinity of the springs. This suggests that the fault is acting as a flow boundary and supports the contention that the fault is acting as a diffusion pathway for H2S escaping from the underlying anaerobic sand, thus explaining the smell of H2S at the springs and the lack of dissolved oxygen in a piezometer screened in the combined aquifers in the immediate vicinity of the springs. |
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| Item Description: | Vita. "Major subject: Geology". |
| Physical Description: | xiv, 135 leaves : illustrations, maps ; 28 cm. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references. |