The thermal baths in Sclafani Bagni belong to the west-Sicily group. The water in Sclafani Bagni is very salty but it can't be considered the result of a mixture with sea water because it is 20 km far from the Northern-shore of Sicily. The baths of Sclafani are on the left side of the Salito torrent nearby the northern Bagni di Sclafani farm. The contrast between the wide valleys with big undulations and the high mountains is peculiar of this area: as in the two main relieves of this area «Sclafani Bagni Mountain» and «Rock of Sciara», in Imerese Facies . Nearby there are some salinas with a lower temperature; on the first schedule there are the temperatures of both hot and warm springs. In the Sclafani-Cerda I area we made lots of hydrocarbon researches, Numerose ricerche di idrocarburi sono state effettuate nella zona Sclafani-Cerda I Madonie, aroused by gas emissions as in Sclafani and Caltavuturo, or oily as in Petralia. From the examination of these drillings SCHMIDT DI FRIEDBERG the limestone found in the three pits costitute a water vessel helped by the great number of faults, the Sclafani and Scillato baths are originated from this single tank were, at a particolar deep, there was a dilution with meteoric waters with a consequent decrease of salinità . The Sclafani Bagni waters can be classified as alcaline - sulphate-chlorinated waters from the analisis in the schedule I and from the Langelie r-Ludwig classification . The existence of H2S in the hot one is a proof that we can consider it as a sulphureous thermal water with all the therapeutics effects connected with this kind of waters . Between the waters with a Ca/S04 far from the unit,the Sclafani Bagni springs(hot and warm)need a particular consideration. = The report between the S0 ion concentration and the chem- 4 ical composition allow some considerations about the oxidoreductive processes the waters are conditioned by. The Sclafani Bagni hot spring is very salty but, anyway, it 18 seems to not contain sea-wate r. As a matter of fact the ä 0 value 0 (H20) quite positive (-4,34 / ) indicate that the water ,in its deep 00 flow, underwent isotopic exchanges with the surrounding rocks and also an alteration of its chemical composition. The compariTHE TERMAL BATHS IN SCALFANI BAGNI GEOLOGY VEGE TATATION IN THE URBAN GEOLOGICAL PATHWAY OF SCLAFANI BAGNI son between this spring and the warm one is interesting. This one is few meters far from the previous and it has got a lower temperature. From the chemical and isotopical analisis (Schedule 1) we can see a correspondence betwen the two waters , except a bigger quantità of sulphate and the absence of sulphuretted hydrogen in the warm spring. Here the H S is almost absent and it 2 sets totally di fferent Eh values between the two waters. The relatively high ammonium ion (5,5 ppm), i the hot spring, put us off to a H S production , coming from a bacterial 2 = reduction of the S0 ion. 

Prof. Mariano Valenza