Water, rivers, lakes

The Czech Republic is rich in mineral water. All of it is a meteoric origin (originates from precipitation). Mineral water resources are often concentrated in the Tertiary and Quaternary volcanic areas.

Many types of mineral waters could be find in the territory of the CR. They are saturated by carbon dioxide, sodium carbonate, sodium chloride, sulfates, magnesium, iodine etc. Some of them are thermal water and a rarity is water with high radioactivity (springs in the town of  Jáchymov in the Western Bohemia have the radioactivity 5-20 thousands of Bq per litre which is unique in the world). Mineral waters are mostly use in spas and food industry.

Fig. 1. Map of the mineral water springs. Types of the mineral water: orange - magnesium water, violet - iodine water, black - radioactive water, yellow - hydrogen sulfide water, red - thermal water, blue - carbon dioxide water. Size of the circle indicates the spring yield.

Fig. 2. Bottled mineral waters which can be found in the shops.

The most famous spa cities in the Czech Republic (Karlovy Vary, Mariánské Lázně and Františkovy Lázně) are located in the Western Bohemia. There are many health resorts with thermal bath and mineral springs.

Task:

1. What is mineral water? What types of mineral water exist?

2. What diseases are treated in Karlovy Vary, Mariánské Lázně, Františkovy Lázně and Jáchymov?