Do you know about karst evolution?

Question

Do you know about karst evolution by natural oil field brine??
And detection oil field brines in karst spring??

Answer 1

Generally, to get karst development (sinkholes and depressions) you need two things - limestone bedrock and slightly acidic water (carbonic acid - H2CO3 forms from rainwater falling through CO2). The carbonic acid slowly dissolves the linestone bedrock, leaving sinkholes, pinnicles, etc.

I am not sure how oil field brines figure into this senario. Although, depending on the composition of brines, they may work on dissolution of the limestone. But it would take a lot of brine over time to do damage.

Sometimes, large volumes of oil removed from a shallow source can cause the reservior rock to lose it structural integerty from fluid loss and it can collape in places, causing subsidence at the surface.

Oil field brines in a karst spring..... how do you know they are oil field brines? Water movement, in certain areas, can dissolve salts and other minerals out and carry them with them. Assuming it is "oil field brine" I would suggest poor environmental management of waste brines from oil wells, discharging brine on the ground, sub-surface well casing leaks, ...... The list is very long.

From the tone of your question, it looks like you are looking to blame someone for some sort of pollution problem. BE VERY CAREFUL. What you describe can be caused my a multitude of causes. Proving it is oil field related can be expensive and hard to do. My advice.... get your state enviromental people involved if you feel it is a serious pollution problem.