Sedimentology and hydro-geochemistry of Garab travertines in southeast of Mashhad

Abstract

Travertine deposits are a kind of continental carbonates that form in specific chemical, physical and biological conditions. Garab travertines in southeast of Mashhad are studied based on field, geochemistry (elemental and stable isotope analysis) and hydro-geochemistry analysis. Field and petrographic characterization led to recognize of crystalline crust, raft, foam, shrub, laminated, black mud and tufa lithofacies. These lithofacies are composed of calcite and aragonite mineralogy. They have high concentrations of Ca, Mg, S, Fe, Na and Sr and low concentration of Mn, P and Si. These lithofacies are enriched with respect to δ13C and depleted with respect to δ18O that can be related to algal origin and meteoric water, respectively. The type of Garab springs water is Ca- HCO3- - SO42- and Na- Cl. This water is saturated with respect to bicarbonate and sulfate. The water composition and dissolved ions have a close relation to geological units (carbonate and evaporite) in Garab area.