Causes of Darkening of the Pamukkale Travertines, Denizli, South-West Turkey
Yükleniyor...
Tarih
2003
Dergi Başlığı
Dergi ISSN
Cilt Başlığı
Yayıncı
Parlar Scientific Publications (P S P)
Erişim Hakkı
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
Özet
Since the beginning of the 1990's, the travertines at Pamukkale, south-west Turkey, have faced a serious environmental pollution problem. The travertines were originally snow-white in colour, but this colour has been turning into pale grey. In addition to other features, the snow-white colour and the huge mass of rocks on the edge of Pamukkale plateau make the travertines unique and attractive to visitors. Living bacteria exist 1-2 mm beneath the surface of the travertines in both terrace and water channel types. The thickness of the bacterial lamina is 1-2 mm in the water channel type, whilst it is approximately 1 cm for other types. Absorbance Spectral (AS) data shows that the living bacteria are cyanobacteria, which are responsible for the green colour in certain areas of the travertines. Our investigations show that the major force responsible for the change of colour in the area is the increasing level of excess organic matter, which also causes a shift in the metal content of the travertines. While the greyish polluted samples have 584 ppm of Total Organic Carbon (TOC), the unpolluted snow-white samples have only 177 ppm of TOC. On the other hand, the Al, Fe and Mn contents of the polluted samples are respectively 144, 62, 6 ppm higher than the unpolluted samples. As the TOC is the main cause of the pollution, decreasing the organic matter in the pools would be the first step to protecting the area. This requires limiting, or even banning, people who enter the pools for swimming. Sources of Al, Fe, Mn and other hazardous metals should be reduced in the region.
Açıklama
Anahtar Kelimeler
Pollution, Travertine, Pamukkale, Turkey
Kaynak
Fresenius Environmental Bulletin
WoS Q Değeri
Q4
Scopus Q Değeri
N/A
Cilt
12
Sayı
11
Künye
Zedef, V., Matsuda, Y., Tanaka, Y., Harada, H., Öncel, M. S., Doyen, A., Söğüt, A. R., Şensöğüt, C., (2003). Causes of Darkening of the Pamukkale Travertines, Denizli, South-West Turkey. Fresenius Environmental Bulletin, 12(11), 1373-1378.
