Jiri Bruthans

• PhD
• Charles University in Prague

The study examines the groundwater around Prague Castle as an example of an extreme urban environment that has been influenced by human activity since the Neolithic period. The long-term human activity, including several still-functioning drainage adits, resulted in a number of aggradation and degradation processes that have significantly impacted...

Cavernous weathering forms have long been studied and discussed as enigmas in geomorphology. Recently, their evolution has been shown to be controlled by moisture patterns, which are still poorly understood. For the first time, capillary water and vapor fluxes were characterized in detail at tafone in a temperate climate of central Europe using a w...

The Bohemian Cretaceous Basin (BCB) is the most important hydrogeological structure in the Czech Republic, with large sources of groundwater. The origin of high-transmissivity zones is poorly understood in many BCB areas. The doyen of Czech hydrogeology prof. Hynie described some of the largest springs to be of karst origin and he attributed the mo...

The Zagros Fold and Thrust Belt (ZFTB), characterized by its numerous salt diapirism and active tectonic deformation, presents an exceptional natural laboratory for examining the sedimentological and structural impacts of diapiric movement within compressional regimes. Our study focused on a representative salt stocked-basin, where we meticulously...

The Ediacaran Period, a pivotal era in Earth's history, witnessed monumental shifts in global climate, atmospheric oxygenation, and biotic innovation, setting the stage for the Cambrian explosion of complex life. This study focuses on the Hormuz Complex within the Zagros Mountains' salt diapir caprock mélange in southern Iran, offering fresh insigh...

Salt caves occur mostly in hyperarid and arid climates and are typically a few thousand years old. There is little data on the evolution of salt caves in semiarid climates, and no data on caves developed in salt glaciers, i.e., salt masses spreading under their own weight, similar to ice glaciers. The age of salt caves and the incision rates of cav...

The origin of highly permeable flow paths in carbonate-siliciclastic rocks, such as large-aperture fractures in aquifers in the Eastern Bohemian Cretaceous Basin (EBCB), is poorly understood. The karst potential was assessed from the rock carbonate content and the degree of disintegration after leaching in HCl. Surprisingly, dissolution of calcite...

Erosion in loess is a widespread phenomenon, as loess covers about 10% of the Earth's land surface. While erosion of loess soil has been intensively studied, the mechanisms controlling erosion in gullies and pipes in loess are poorly understood. Cohesion plays an important role in erosion in loess. Interactions between erosional processes and stabi...

Salt diapirs in southern Iran provide excellent exposures of the host rock sedimentary sequences that record salt diapiric growth in compressional settings. This study addresses the reactivation of one particular diapir in the core of an anticline of the Zagros Fold and Thrust Belt (ZFTB) using the classical concept of halokinetic sequences. These...

The formation of Neoproterozoic cap carbonate is linked to the "Snowball Earth" hypothesis, which suggests that the Earth was covered by ice during two or more prolonged glaciations. The melting of the glaciers led to a rapid rise in sea level and the subsequent deposition of carbonate-rich sediments. The presence of dolomite in the Hormuz Formatio...

Carbonate units in the Paskhand salt diapir (Zagros Mts., Iran) exhibit field relationships and rock fabrics similar to classical carbonate caprock (CCR) from around the world, but also have features that are in marked contrast to such examples. The most noticeable difference is that its atypical CCR (aCCR) is mostly made up of multigenerational do...

In the Late Ordovician, the Prague Basin was located at the high-latitude northwestern shelf of Gondwana. This period was characterised by profound environmental changes and ended by one of the most severe mass extinctions, which was caused by climatic changes. Although the end-Ordovician extinction is closely related to the Hirnantian glaciation,...

This study is focused on the base flow decrease due to surface water and groundwater evapotranspiration (ET) in wetlands of the Liběchovka catchment. Evapotranspiration in wetlands can significantly affect stream discharge, and its influence will probably still increase in the future due to the global rise of temperatures caused by climate change....

The eastern Zagros Fold and Thrust Belt (ZFTB) in Iran includes a salt tectonic province with roughly 130 salt-gypsum diapirs emerging within the Neoproterozoic-Early Cambrian Hormuz Complex. The diapirs in the ZFTB differ in composition and in their distribution of exposed caprock mélanges (CRMs). Although there are numerous studies focused on the...

The Zagros Fold and Thrust Belt in southern Iran is a well-known area for its impressive salt diapirs outcrops which are sourced from the Pre-Cambrian to Early Cambrian Hormuz Formation. The positive and negative accommodation spaces adjacent to the salt diapir result from the salt movement-sedimentation interaction that creates unconformity-bound...

The construction of the new metro line D in Praha-Pankrác provides a unique opportunity to study different aspects such as lithology, stratigraphy and fossil assemblages from the Upper Ordovician and Silurian of the Prague Basin. Results from the sections in tunnels mined so far allowed detailed information about the succession of fossil assemblage...

Knowledge of the evaporation rate from rock surfaces is critical for obtaining the water flux in the rock-atmosphere interphase, for understanding moisture distribution, and for quantification of damage from salt crystallization within the rock. Evaporation from rocks is a poorly understood, yet important process. We present a study on evaporation...

Salts play a pivotal role in the processes forming tafoni and honeycombs but only few studies have focused on their areal and depth distribution. An X-ray diffraction, rock leachates chemistry, and evaporation front depth were combined to get a deeper insight into factors controlling salt composition and distribution. Five sites representing variou...

Groundwater inflows showing notable natural radioactivity have been found at the northern end of the Holešovice cable tunnel close to the Čimice Grove. This groundwater originates from the Barrandian Neoproterozoic slates of the Blovice accretionary complex, Belt I (Šárka-Zbiroh Belt) at depths approximately 100 meters below the surface, occurring...

Cavernous weathering (honeycombs, tafoni) is a common weathering feature of both natural and artificial exposures. Honeycombs are known from various environments but are best developed in coastal areas. There are several theories as to their origin, with salt weathering currently being the most favoured by the geomorphological community. To test if...

The Zagros Fold and Thrust Belt (ZFTB) is 1800 km long, which trends as NW-SE part of the orogeny interpolating the Alpine-Himalayan Orogenic Belt. The tectonic history of these parallel belts generally consists of three steps: stable platform in Paleozoic, extension and rifting in the ocean in Jurassic-Early Cretaceous; ophiolite emplacement in La...

Weathering and disintegration of sandstone outcrops are a complex process involving loose material production, rockfall phenomena, and creation of picturesque natural sceneries. On historical monuments, they induce damage to building stone. Here we present a new look on sandstone weathering/recession the central aspect of which is rapid disintegrat...

Two iconic salt diapirs in the Zagros Mountains in Iran – Karmostaj (Gach) and Siah Taq – are regarded as world-class examples of salt extrusions and are frequently called ‘salt glaciers’. However, our field survey revealed that their glacier-like parts are formed by thick, variegated and deformed caprock, only locally mixed with salt. Caprock is a...

Evaporation from porous rock is not only a significant part of the earth-atmosphere water balance but it also plays a crucial role in weathering processes. In the case of salt weathering, the evaporation rate directly influences the amount of precipitated aggressive salts. Evaporation also strongly affects frost, hydric and biogenic weathering, sin...

Pilot Valley is an 828-km2 arid-region endorheic basin in western USA. Bounding mountain ranges rise as much as 1,900 m above the nearly flat 379-km2 playa floor. Up to 3.8 m of Pleistocene Lake Bonneville mud and thin oolitic sand layers form the surface layer of the basin floor. Groundwater conditions were evaluated using data from shallow monito...

The Gobholo Cave is one of the ten worldʼs largest granite caves (and the longest on the African continent), abound with relatively rich speleothem deposits. For the first time, a set of instrumental techniques (XRD, SEM/EDS, Raman micro-spectroscopy) was used to characterize the speleothems and also waters (ICP-OES) from which these speleothems ha...

Soil piping is a widespread land degradation process that may lead to gully formation. However, the processes involved in sediment detachment from soil pipe walls have not been well studied, although their recognition is a crucial step to protect soils from piping erosion. This study aims to recognize the factors affecting cohesion and to identify...

Evaporation from a porous rock plays an important role in weathering processes. In the case of salt weathering, the evaporation rate controls supersaturation of salt solutions within pores and the amount of precipitated aggressive salts, therefore weathering occurs mostly in places with intense evaporation. Evaporation also strongly affects frost,...

Arcades, i.e. lenticular and other specifically shaped hollows controlled by discontinuities, have recently been recognized as a weathering form typical for sandstones, weathered quartzites, granites, or tuffs. They are produced by accelerated weathering and erosion in stress shadows related to the redistribution of gravity-induced stress along pla...

In this study, we characterized the glacial meltwater flow through a proglacial area with a focus on proglacial lakes, their hydrological regime and their connection to the stream. The studied lakes – the Adygine ice-debris complex, northern Tien Shan – showed a distinct development throughout an ablation season: at Lake 2, the mean daily water-lev...

The vaporization plane, a narrow zone of subsurface evaporation often present in porous rocks, separates the region where water flows due to capillary forces from the dry zone where moisture moves in gas phase only. The knowledge of its depth and geometry is critical for estimating water flux in rockatmosphere interphase, for understanding moisture...

Paper is available at: https://rdcu.be/bIjDw Abstract: Little is known about water mixing in deep underwater cave shafts of hypogene karst. The Hranice Abyss (HA) in Czechia is currently the deepest underwater cave in the world. It shares a thermal and CO2-rich water source with an adjacent spa. Based on chemical and isotope composition, water in t...

Karst potential is rarely studied in calcareous sandstones and sandy limestones. The minimum content of carbonate necessary for the development of conduits is unknown, and the mechanisms of the origins of conduits in these rocks are poorly understood. This article focuses upon these questions in an important regional aquifer. Samples of limestones...

Nitrate contamination in the upper Elbe River basin in the Czech Republic is high and has remained relatively constant since monitoring began in the 1960's. Long-term NO3− and discharge data for 138 locations in the Labe, Berounka, Ohře, and Vltava sub-basins has been analyzed. Fifty nine of the locations were sampled for δ15N during low flow condi...

The salt diapirs in the Zagros Fold and Thrust Belt (ZFTB; southeastern Iran) represent sensitive indicators of the interplay between tectonic forces governing their uplift and climate controlling their degradation. The diapirs contain Infracambrian evaporitic sequences of the Hormuz Formation and were initiated and reactivated during multiple tect...

In coarser porous materials (e.g. in natural sandstone bodies, buildings made of porous materials, or sandy soils), evaporation of pore water often occurs several mm to cm below the actual surface, at the so-called vaporization plane. The knowledge of the depth of this vaporization plane is critical for prediction of material disintegration, e.g. b...

People tend to admire well-developed rock arches and bridges as a symbol of perfection in nature. However, the origin of such arches still remains unclear, with different authors emphasizing different factors as essential. An authentic small-scale physical model of a perfect arch was created in situ from friable sandstone through a simulation of na...

Nitrate is necessary for agricultural productivity, but it is also one of the most common water contaminants in developed countries. The riverbank filtration (RBF) systems in Káraný (Czechia), with nearly 500 wells regularly distributed along 22 km of the alluvium aquifer/river interface, presents a unique field laboratory where the adverse effects...

The vaporization plane in porous media separates the region of capillary flow from the dry surface layer, where the water transports only in its gas phase. Knowledge of the depth and geometry of the vaporization plane is critical for estimating water flux in the soil-atmosphere interphase, for understanding evaporating processes in general, and for...

[See our published article: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/327017888_Use_of_sodium_fluorescein_dye_to_visualize_the_vaporization_plane_within_porous_media] The use of fluorescein dye in evaporation experiments to visualize spatial distribution of moisture, including the evaporation front, is accurate , cost-effective, and straightforward...

Cavernous weathering is a global phenomenon occurring in porous rocks all around the world. Honeycombs (also called alveoli or lacework), together with tafoni, are the most common forms of cavernous weathering. Honeycombs are generally described as numerous tightly adjoining pits of several centimeters in size at the outcrop surface. Despite their...

Weathering patterns on sandstone cliff faces and sloping surfaces were studied from the viewpoint of gravity-induced stress combined with the presence of planar discontinuities in the rock. Critical evaluation of hundreds of photos taken in various regions around the world, numerical modelling using finite element method (including automatic stress...

Cavernous weathering (cavernous rock decay) is a global phenomenon, which occurs in porous rocks around the world. Although honeycombs and tafoni are considered to be the most common products of this complex process, their origin and evolution are as yet not fully understood. The two commonly assumed formation hypotheses – hydraulic and case harden...

Locked sand is a material with unusual geomechanical properties (Dusseault Morgenstern 1979): relatively high unconfined compressive strength, high internal friction angle but very low tensile strength. These properties arise from the lack of permanent cement, and interlocked structure of quartz grains. At least some of the locked sands are load st...

The Jahani Salt Diapir (JSD), with an area of 54 km2, is an active diapir in the Simply Folded Belt of the Zagros Orogeny, in the south of Iran. Most of the available studies on this diapir are focused on tectonics. The hydrogeology, schematic model of flow direction and hydrochemical effects of the JSD on the adjacent water resources are lacking,...

It is well known that the presence of biologically initiated rock crust (BIRC in further text) increases the resistance of slightly cemented sandstone to erosion. As moisture and its transport are critical for many weathering processes, this study is focused on the effect of BIRC on hydraulic properties of sandstone. Changes in water vapor permeabi...

Over recent years, the effect of biocolonization of sandstone surfaces has been widely discussed. A large number of studies proved deteriorating effect of organisms. On the other hand, some studies demonstrated that biologically-initiated rock crust protects sandstone surfaces against various weathering processes, and therefore decreases the erosio...

Southern Iran hosts abundant salt karst phenomena in numerous salt diapirs. This paper provides a new insight into the relationships among climate, cap soil and salt karst hydrogeology. Cave systems were documented and mapped. Soil, drip, stream, and flood waters from different environments were studied at several diapirs. It was revealed that the...

Coarse porous materials, after reaching a certain low value of water content, form a dry subsurface layer. Through this layer, water migrates only as vapor, and its flux is governed by diffusion from subsurface evaporation front to the surface. The goal of this study was to develop a 1D model that would describe evaporation from both, the near-satu...

Biocolonization on sandstone surfaces is known to play an important role in rock disintegration, yet it sometimes also aids in the protection of the underlying materials from rapid erosion. There have been few studies comparing the mechanical and/or hydraulic properties of the BIRC (Biologically-Initiated Rock Crust) with its subsurface. As a resul...

The Sojovice and Skorkov water supply systems, fed by local infiltration to calcareous sandstones, fluvial aquifer and induced recharge from the Jizera River have been affected by high nitrate content in recent years.Twelve new wells (Fig. 1) revealed low saturated thickness of alluvial aquifer (average 3.6 m, just 2 m close to river, Table 1), whi...

Those factors controlling the weathering and erosion of sandstone on the field scale are still not well understood. In this study, a specific sandstone overhang (and its surroundings) with artificially induced and extremely high erosion rates was subjected to a complex investigation. Contrast between the erosion rate of the wet and dry portions of...

Na področju Perzijskega zaliva je znanih okoli 200 solnih diapirjev, med njimi mnogo aktivnih. Kraške kamnine predstavljajo največ kamena sol in redkeje sadra ter anhidrid. Kraške oblike, popolnoma primerljive z oblikami v “klasičnih” karbonatnih kamninah, so najbolje razvite v ostankih uravnanih površij. Tako so škraplje, “solution pipes”, vrtače,...

Rich in historical heritage and natural beauties and located close to Prague , the Bohemian Karst has attracted visitors and scholars for centuries. Lower Paleozoic strata, folded and faulted during the Variscan Orogeny , have yielded thousands of fossil species . Well-exposed sedimentary rocks enabled definition of five international stratotype an...

Recent work has shown that gravity-induced stress within a landform due to vertical loading reduces weathering and erosion rates, contrary to commonly held hypotheses. The purpose of this investigation is to evaluate the negative feedback between stress and weathering of sandstone monuments at the Petra World Heritage Site in Jordan via field obser...

Two tracer tests were carried out in the Huber sink in the village of Kryštofovo Údolí near the city of Liberec, northern part of the Czech Republic. The aim of tracer testswasto verify the flow direction and to characterize the flow and karst conduits. Small lenses of crystalline carbonates are enclosed in quartzite and phyllite in the area of Kry...

Nitrate concentrations in drips in Amaterska, Spolecnak, and Holstejnska caves situated below a 25 to 120 m thick vadose zone in the Moravian Karst, Central Europe were studied during several periods from 1992. Each cave runs below a land-use boundary between fertilized lands and forest, which enabled study of the range of horizontal components of...

Weathering and erosion of sandstone produces unique landforms1, 2 such as arches, alcoves, pedestal rocks and pillars. Gravity-induced stresses have been assumed to not play a role in landform preservation3 and to instead increase weathering rates4, 5. Here we show that increased stress within a landform as a result of vertical loading reduces weat...

Abbreviation Explanation SLS Strelec Locked Sand F Overburden load Ssat Cross-section area of landform TS Tensile strength of surface TSa TS measured on sandstone exposures under ambient humidity TSa (DR) TSa derived from drilling resistance measurements TSd TS measured at unconfined SLS cubes, which were oven-dried TSs TS measured at unconfined SL...

In Strelec Quarry, the Czech Republic, an underground conduit network > 300 m long with a volume of ~ 104 m3 and a catchment of 7 km2 developed over 5 years by groundwater flow in Cretaceous marine quartz sandstone. Similar landforms at natural exposures (conduits, slot canyons, undercuts) are stabilized by case hardening and have stopped evolving....

Hydraulic and hydrochemical relationships between a medium gradient river and a karst aquifer were studied by water level and temperature logging combined with water geochemistry and delta C-13. The cave lakes are separated from the river by a floodplain up to 150 m wide formed by a gravel and sand layer up to 13 m thick covered with fine-grained f...

Summary Arid region mountain front recharge (MFR) for two catchments (17.5 and 25.6 km2) in the Silver Island Mountains, Utah, USA was evaluated by an analysis of catchment precipitation, mountain front and playa infiltration rates, aquifer parameters, and groundwater level responses in 59 shallow monitoring wells located at the distal end of the c...

Speleothems in 6 sandstone caves in the Bohemian Paradise (Český ráj) were dated by means of 14C and U-series methods. Stable isotopes of C and O, FAAS, IR, XRD, XRF and SEM were used to characterize the carbonate material and its source. Stable isotopes (C and O) composition of speleothems in two caves corresponds to values characteristic for cave...

This paper summaries 12 years of documentation of secondary halite deposits in the Iranian salt karst. A variety of secondary halite deposits was distinguished and classified into several groups, on the basis of the site and mechanism of their origin. Deposits formed: i) via crystallization in/on streams and pools, ii) from dripping, splashing and...

An isolated phreatic loop in a natural cave was used to test the reliability of artificial-tracer tests for estimating the volume of a flooded karst conduit. The volume of a phreatic tube was measured by filling a drained phreatic loop with a constant inflow over a known time period. The volume of the phreatic loop is 190 6 20 m 3 , and it was comp...

Marine, fluvial and cave sediments, and karst phenomena were studied and dated by 14C, U-series, and OSL methods to determine the evolution of the Namakdan diapir and the world's longest salt cave (3N Cave) during the Holocene and the Last Glacial. Sea-level oscillations, the uplift rate of the diapir and its surroundings, and erosion are the main...

The aim of the project is to clarify and characterize the probable sources of increased selenium contamination in groundwater at Suchomasty Village located 35 km SW of Prague. The village is supplied by drinking water from a 25 m deep bore-hole with catchment formed by Ordovician to Devonian mostly sedimentary rocks of the Prague Basin. The seleniu...

Timpanogos Cave, located near the Wasatch fault, is about 357 m above the American Fork River. Fluvial cave sediments and an interbedded carbonate flowstone yield a paleomagnetic and U–Th depositional age of 350 to 780 ka. Fault vertical slip rates, inferred from calculated river downcutting rates, range between 1.02 and 0.46 mm yr− 1. These slip r...

The surfaces of salt diapirs in the Zagros Mountains are mostly covered by surficial deposits, which significantly affect erosion rates, salt karst evolution, land use and the density of the vegetation cover. Eleven salt diapirs were selected for the study of surficial deposits in order to cover variability in the geology, morphology and climate in...

Strips of metamorphosed carbonate rocks in a contact-karst area in the Jeseniky Mts, Czech Republic, act as aquifers, draining broad areas of crystalline rocks, mostly phyllites. Significant groundwater resources that are partly used as a water supply are in carbonate rocks. Detailed temperature and conductivity measurements coupled with discharge...

Salt exposures and weathering residuum on several salt diapirs in different geographic/climatic settings were studied. Anhydrite, gypsum, hematite, calcite, dolomite, quartz, and clay minerals are the main constituents of the weathering residuum covering the salt diapirs in various thicknesses. Erosion rates of residuum as well as of rock salt expo...