Water chemistry of Lake Albano (Italy)

Lake Albano was stratified at the time of our survey, in December 1997, in agreement with previous observations [Martini et al., Geochem. J. 28 (1994) 173–184; Cioni et al., Report for the Civil Protection Department (1995); Pedreschi, Accad. Lucch. Sci. Lett. Arti (1995) 39]. In the absence of phenomena induced by seismic activity, either local or regional, lake stratification may be perturbed by cooling of shallow waters below ∼8.5°C. Circulation is expected to homogenize lake waters and eventually to trigger gas exsolution when total gas pressure exceeds hydrostatic pressure. In December 1997, total gas pressure in lake water was very close to atmospheric pressure (0.9–1.3 bar) at all depths, possibly due to the occurrence of a recent episode of circulation and presumed gas exsolution. The state of saturation of Lake Albano waters and the similarity of the relative concentrations of Na, K, Mg, and Ca in lake waters, local groundwaters, and local volcanic rocks indicate that Na, K, Mg, and Ca concentrations in Lake Albano waters are mainly governed by incongruent dissolution of local volcanic rocks, coupled with minor calcite precipitation at shallow depths.