Physical and geochemical characteristics of land mud volcanoes along Colombia's Caribbean coast and their societal impacts.

Autor: Di Luccio D; University of Naples Parthenope, Department of Science and Technologies, 80138 Naples, Italy. Electronic address: diana.diluccio@uniparthenope.it., Banda Guerra IM; Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras INVEMAR, Santa Marta, Colombia., Correa Valero LE; Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras INVEMAR, Santa Marta, Colombia., Morales Giraldo DF; Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras INVEMAR, Santa Marta, Colombia. Electronic address: david.morales@invemar.org.co., Maggi S; National Research Council, Institute of Atmospheric Pollution Research, CNR-IIA, 70125 Bari, Italy; International Telematic University UniNettuno, Faculty of Engineering, 00186 Rome, Italy. Electronic address: sabino.maggi@cnr.it., Palmisano M; National Research Council, Institute for Agricultural and Forest Systems in the Mediterranean, CNR-ISAFOM, 82100 Benevento, Italy. Electronic address: maurizio.palmisano@cnr.it.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: The Science of the total environment [Sci Total Environ] 2021 Mar 10; Vol. 759, pp. 144225. Date of Electronic Publication: 2020 Dec 08.
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.144225
Abstrakt: The Caribbean coast is characterized by the presence of mud volcanoes, a secondary phenomenon of volcanism similar to mud diapirs for its development and evolution, but different in terms of geological features and forms. These mud volcanoes are often located close to tectonic faults and oil and gas deposits. Their geological context is dominated by the presence of clay sediments and brackish water, that favors the decomposition of organic material and the formation of methane. Mud volcanoes can thus be an important reservoir of hydrocarbons. This paper aims to fill the existing gap in the knowledge of mud volcanoes (MVs) of Colombia. We analyze the physical and geochemical characteristics of nine onshore mud volcanoes located in the Departments of Atlántico (La Laguna), Bolívar (Las Palomas, La Bonga, Santa Catalina, Yerbabuena, Clemencia, and Membrillal), Cordóba (Los Olivos), and Magdalena (Cañaveral). These structures present a kaolinitic composition, except for La Laguna mud volcano in which smectite is predominant. Apart from tectonic processes, this influences the shape and size of MVs and, also, the type and frequency of eruptions. The abundance of methane in all sites confirms the thermogenic origin of these structures. MVs are often considered landscape attractions as well as a therapeutic resources, but unfortunately they also represent a serious risk for the local communities, due to the frequent unexpected, eruptions, sometimes accompanied by the release of toxic gases or by landslides, that can damage the infrastructures and hurt the population living in the area. The MVs are classified into five vulnerability classes using a novel synthetic index which could improve the understanding of risks associated with the presence of MVs in proximity to towns and infrastructures.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
(Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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