Pit Lakes in Abandoned Slate Quarries in Northwestern Spain: Characteristics and Potential Uses

Human activities play a key role in landscape evolution. Mining is one of the most important of these since it changes large parts of the Earth’s surface. In abandoned mines and quarries, pit lakes are quite common due to water table blocking. These lakes have remarkable ecological characteristics,...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inWater (Basel) Vol. 16; no. 17; p. 2403
Main Authors Redondo-Vega, José María, Santos-González, Javier, Melón-Nava, Adrián, Gómez-Villar, Amelia, Peña-Pérez, Sergio A, Rosa Blanca González-Gutiérrez
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Basel MDPI AG 01.09.2024
Subjects
Anniversaries
Coal mining
Exploitation
Lakes
Land use
landscape changes
Mines
open-pit mining
pit lakes
Quarries
Roofing
Runoff
slate quarries
Spain
Topography
Water
Spain
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Summary:Human activities play a key role in landscape evolution. Mining is one of the most important of these since it changes large parts of the Earth’s surface. In abandoned mines and quarries, pit lakes are quite common due to water table blocking. These lakes have remarkable ecological characteristics, but they are still poorly understood. Northwestern Spain has a long tradition in the use of slate for roofs. This exploitation, mostly open-pit, has caused a great transformation in the landscape including the generation of pit lakes. In this work, 27 pit lakes in abandoned slate quarries areas have been analysed using orthophotos of different years, UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) images and field work. In each lake, the topographic context, geomorphological dynamics, morphometric parameters (including depth), pH, and ecological variables were measured. Other uses for these quarry pit lakes and their significance as a new geo-ecological environment are also discussed. The results show different types of pit lakes and, consequently, different potential uses in each case. Only six offer good conditions for recreational uses, whereas the rest (21) show slope instability or poor water quality.
ISSN:2073-4441
DOI:10.3390/w16172403