Hydrothermal Fluid Circulation and Travertine Precipitation of Akhüyük (Konya) Geothermal Field, Central Anatolia, Turkey
Abstract: The Akhüyük geothermal field, which is the study area, is located in the southwest part of the CentralAnatolian Volcanic Complex. Akhüyük travertine in the study area is a fissure-ridge type travertine formed as a resultof sedimentation of thermal waters reaching the surface along a fault line parallel to the Tuzgölü Fault Zone. Allrock samples of study area are composed of calcite mineral in whole rock XRD examination. According to the XRFanalysis results of the same samples, all samples are composed of about 90% of Ca element and this Ca element isaccompanied by Mg, S, Sr and K elements. Surface temperatures of water samples taken from different sources inthe study area vary between 17-35 °C, pH values are 6.6-6.9 and electrical conductivities (EC) are between 5600-47700 μS/cm. According to the Scholler diagram of the water samples collected from the study area, the waters arefed from the same source. The ion distributions of the water samples are Na+K>Ca+Mg and Cl+SO4>HCO3+CO3according to the cations and anions, respectively and consist of Na-Cl type water. Mineral saturations in measuredtemperatures during water sampling indicate that calcite, aragonite and dolomite minerals are generally formed byprecipitation in the thermal waters. According to the generated three-dimensional conceptual model of the field, thebedrock of the area is the Paleozoic Niğde Group, the heating system is composed by the Üçkapılı Granodiorite and geogradyan as it is in the Central Anatolian Volcanic Complex. Reservoir rock is the limestones belonging to GökbezFormation and the cover rocks are the Akhüyük travertines with the Pleistocene-Holocene sediments.