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Featured articles from Cave & Karst Science Journals
Characterization of minothems at Libiola (NW Italy): morphological, mineralogical, and geochemical study, Carbone Cristina; Dinelli Enrico; De Waele Jo
Chemistry and Karst, White, William B.
Engineering challenges in Karst, Stevanović, Zoran; Milanović, Petar
The karst paradigm: changes, trends and perspectives, Klimchouk, Alexander
Long-term erosion rate measurements in gypsum caves of Sorbas (SE Spain) by the Micro-Erosion Meter method, Sanna, Laura; De Waele, Jo; Calaforra, José Maria; Forti, Paolo
Featured articles from other Geoscience Journals
Geochemical and mineralogical fingerprints to distinguish the exploited ferruginous mineralisations of Grotta della Monaca (Calabria, Italy), Dimuccio, L.A.; Rodrigues, N.; Larocca, F.; Pratas, J.; Amado, A.M.; Batista de Carvalho, L.A.
Karst processes and landforms, De Waele, J.
Karst environment, Culver D.C.
Mushroom Speleothems: Stromatolites That Formed in the Absence of Phototrophs, Bontognali, Tomaso R.R.; D’Angeli Ilenia M.; Tisato, Nicola; Vasconcelos, Crisogono; Bernasconi, Stefano M.; Gonzales, Esteban R. G.; De Waele, Jo
Calculating flux to predict future cave radon concentrations, Rowberry, Matt; Marti, Xavi; Frontera, Carlos; Van De Wiel, Marco; Briestensky, Milos
Featured article from geoscience journal
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Earth Surface Processes and Landforms/EARTH SURFACE PROCESSES AND LANDFORMS , 2014
Paleoflood events recorded by speleothems in caves
Gazquez F. , Calaforra J. M. , Forti P. , Stoll H. , Ghaleb B. , Delgadohuertas A.
Abstract:
Speleothems are usually composed of thin layers of calcite (or aragonite). However,
cemented detrital materials interlayered between laminae of speleothemic carbonate have been also observed in many caves. Flowstones comprising discontinuous carbonate layers form due to flowing water films,while flood events introduce fluviokarstic sediments in caves that, on occasion,are recorded as clayey layers inside flowstones and stalagmites. This record provides a potential means of understanding the frequency of palaeofloods using cave records.In this work,we investigate the origin of this type of detritaldeposit in El Soplao Cave (Northern Spain). The age of the lowest aragonite layer
of a flowstone reveals that the earliest flood period occurred before 500 ka, though most of the flowstone formed between 422 +69/-43 ka and 400 +66/-42 ka. This suggests that the cave was periodically affected by palaeoflood events that introduced detrital sediments from the surface as a result of occasional extreme rainfall events,especially at around 400 ka.The mineralogical data enable an evolutionary modelfor this flowstone to be generated based on the alternation offload events with laminar flows and carbonate layers precipitation that can be extrapolated to other caves in which detrital sediments inside speleothems have been found.
Speleothems are usually composed of thin layers of calcite (or aragonite). However,
cemented detrital materials interlayered between laminae of speleothemic carbonate have been also observed in many caves. Flowstones comprising discontinuous carbonate layers form due to flowing water films,while flood events introduce fluviokarstic sediments in caves that, on occasion,are recorded as clayey layers inside flowstones and stalagmites. This record provides a potential means of understanding the frequency of palaeofloods using cave records.In this work,we investigate the origin of this type of detritaldeposit in El Soplao Cave (Northern Spain). The age of the lowest aragonite layer
of a flowstone reveals that the earliest flood period occurred before 500 ka, though most of the flowstone formed between 422 +69/-43 ka and 400 +66/-42 ka. This suggests that the cave was periodically affected by palaeoflood events that introduced detrital sediments from the surface as a result of occasional extreme rainfall events,especially at around 400 ka.The mineralogical data enable an evolutionary modelfor this flowstone to be generated based on the alternation offload events with laminar flows and carbonate layers precipitation that can be extrapolated to other caves in which detrital sediments inside speleothems have been found.