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12 Culcheth Hall Drive, Culcheth, Warrington WA3 4PS, UK (rick@brassingtonhydrogeology.co.uk)
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F.C. Brassington writes: Shepley is to be congratulated on his detailed description of the Meerbrook Sough and analysis of the groundwater discharge from this abandoned mine drainage system (Shepley 2007). He has made a useful addition to the small but growing body of work on the hydrogeology of both the Derbyshire Carboniferous Limestone aquifer and the associated thermal groundwaters. I am particularly interested in his conclusion that the groundwater discharging through the Meerbrook Sough is predominantly from diffuse flow through the primary fracture network, particularly as this conclusion supports important aspects of my proposed conceptual model for the Derbyshire thermal springs (Brassington 2007).
Shepley's review of the Meerbrook Sough primarily considers the flow regime rather than the water temperature or chemistry. Edmunds (1971) gave the temperature of the sough discharge as 15.3 °C compared with that of the closest thermal springs at Matlock Bath, which is typically some 19.7 °C. He uses the water temperature to conclude that up to half the discharge from the sough is from thermal origins, although from consideration of the temperatures of the local groundwater this estimate appears conservative. The temperature measurements by Edmunds (1971) of other groundwater discharges indicate a range from less than 6 °C to over 9 °C for the non-thermal waters. Assuming the non-thermal groundwater entering the sough has a temperature at the top of this range, the thermal component would be about 60%, and taking the lower end of the range the thermal contribution would be
