A stratigraphic and geophysical approach to studying the deep-circulating groundwater and thermal springs, and their recharge areas, in Cimini Mountains–Viterbo area, central Italy

The stratigraphic and structural setting of the Cimini Mountains and Viterbo area of Italy has been reconstructed. The architecture of the tectonic edifice, below the Pleistocene Cimino and Vicano volcanic districts cover, is characterized by the Mesozoic–Cenozoic Tuscan Nappe and the similar Umbria-Marche Succession; both are capped by the overthrusted Ligurian Late Cretaceous–Eocene Tolfa Flysch. A shallow unconfined volcanic aquifer is separated, by a thick aquiclude, from the deep confined carbonate aquifer consisting of the Tuscan Nappe and the Umbria-Marche Succession. The volcanic aquifer hosts cold waters, whilst the carbonate aquifer hosts hot sulphate–alkaline earth waters that emerge in the thermal area of Viterbo with a temperature of 30–60°C. The recharge area of cold waters is located in the Cimini Mountains. Thermal waters of the Viterbo hot springs are derived from a circuit of waters that emerge along the River Nera near Narni (about 34 km ENE of Viterbo), with a high salinity, a temperature of 16–18°C, a sulphate–alkaline earth composition, and a discharge of 13 m³/sec, whose recharge area is located in the central pre-Apennines reliefs.