Chemical and Mineralogical Properties of Salt and Soda Lake Muds Used as Peloids in Konya Basin, Turkey

Abstract

Tuz Golu is the largest salt lake of Turkey and there are also some soda lakes of different sizes near the lake located in the closed Konya basin in central Anatolia. The muds formed under these salt and soda layers are used by the local people in various diseases in different forms such as mud baths, masks, and cataplasms. The purpose of the study is to determine the mineral types and chemical composition of the muds. The mineralogical compositions of the muds were investigated using X-ray diffraction, and chemical composition of waters and muds were determined by ICP-EAS to determine possible toxicity and suitability of the muds for pelotherapeutic cures. The water of the Salt Lake is enriched by Mg-NaCl-SO4, Mg-Cl and Na-Cl and their electrical conductivity (EC) values range from 141500 to 227000 µS/cm while the soda lakes are enriched by Na-Mg-Cl-SO4 and Na-Mg-SO4-HCO3, respectively. EC values of the lakes are between 148000 and 20200 µS/cm. The mineralogical composition of the lakes is composed of mainly halite, thenardite, mirabilite, glauberite, gypsum/anhydrite, calcite, and aragonite. Dolomite, rarely konyaite, hexahydrite, bloedite and starkeite are found in some samples. Smectite, palygorskite, sepiolite, illite, kaolinite are common clay minerals in the lake muds. According to the preliminary results, it was determined that it cannot be cause no problems in terms of chemical composition but it may cause some skin problems such as scratching, dryness, and redness of the skin especially due to the high content of non-clay minerals.