Non-Destructive Characterization Of Variously Colored Gypsum And Aragonite/Calcite Speleothems From The Cigalère Cave (Ariège, France),
University of South Florida
Non-Destructive Characterization Of Variously Colored Gypsum And Aragonite/Calcite Speleothems From The Cigalère Cave (Ariège, France), Gaëtan Rochez, Johan Wouters, Gérald Fanuel, Jean-François Drion Du Chapois, Anne Gallez, Stéphane Pire-Stevenne, Johan Yans, Martin Vlieghe
International Journal of Speleology
The Cigalère Cave is a 21 km-long karstic cave located in the Ariège Department, in the French Pyrenees, and underlies directly the Bentaillou Pb-Zn-Fe sulfide ores. The cave hosts abundant gypsum mineralizations, some of them exhibiting various colorations including blue, yellow, purple, orange and black. Due to strict preservation policies, these colored mineralizations have not been studied much. Here we propose a non-destructive characterization of five distinct gypsum or carbonate speleothem structures from the Cigalère, exhibiting different colorations. To comply with the preservation policies, no sample was taken from the cave, and all speleothems were analyzed in situ using portable …
Did Seismic Events Trigger The Growth Of Aragonitic Speleothems In Mawmluh Cave, North-East India?,
University of South Florida
Did Seismic Events Trigger The Growth Of Aragonitic Speleothems In Mawmluh Cave, North-East India?, Denis Scholz, Dana Riechelmann, Dildi Dildi, Michael Weber, Anne Jantschke, Regina Mertz-Kraus
International Journal of Speleology
Mawmluh Cave, north-east India, is located in a seismically very active region within the Himalayas with frequent earthquakes of varying magnitude. So far, speleothems from the cave have mainly been used to reconstruct past monsoon variability. The potential effect of seismic events on speleothem formation in Mawmluh Cave, however, has not been studied in detail yet. We investigated three stalagmites from Mawmluh Cave, each predominantly consisting of calcite overlain by substantially younger aragonite at the top (i.e., an aragonite ‘cap’). 230Th/U-dating shows that the initiation of aragonite growth occurred between 1859 and 1950 CE in agreement with previous studies. The …
The Fossil Pearls Of The Million-Pearls Flowstone, Fairgrounds Room, Fort Stanton Cave, New Mexico Usa,
University of South Florida
The Fossil Pearls Of The Million-Pearls Flowstone, Fairgrounds Room, Fort Stanton Cave, New Mexico Usa, Victor Polyak, Yemane Asmerom, Paula Provencio
International Journal of Speleology
‘Fossil’ cave pearls in the Fairgrounds Room of Fort Stanton Cave form two distinct layers in a flowstone sample, FS-14-2. The flowstone in the Fairgrounds Room covers a mud-silt bank and the extinct streambed that extends across the room. Uranium-series dates of two pieces of flowstone from this room, one piece from the higher end of the flowstone (FS-14-1, devoid of pearls), and another piece from the lower end of the flowstone (FS-14-2, rich in pearls), show that the flowstone was deposited during the Last Glacial period (60,000 to 11,000 yr BP). The two cave-pearl layers in FS-14-2 yielded U-series …
Modeling Cave Temperature To Prioritize The Assessment Of Over-Winter Cave Use By Bats In Grand Canyon National Park,
Western Kentucky University
Modeling Cave Temperature To Prioritize The Assessment Of Over-Winter Cave Use By Bats In Grand Canyon National Park
National Cave and Karst Management Symposia
No abstract provided.
Speleothems In Sandstone Crevice And Boulder Caves Of The Elbe River Canyon, Czech Republic,
University of South Florida
Speleothems In Sandstone Crevice And Boulder Caves Of The Elbe River Canyon, Czech Republic, Michal Filippi, Jaroslav Kukla, Roman Skála, Noemi Mészárosová, Jiří Adamovič
International Journal of Speleology
A variety of speleothems are present in crevice and boulder caves developed in Cretaceous sandstones of the Elbe River Canyon in northern Czech Republic. A set of complementary instrumental mineralogical methods was applied to characterize the speleothems and cave dripwaters, including X-ray powder diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and microanalysis, Raman spectroscopy and optical emission spectrometry. Four morphological types were distinguished and characterized in terms of their mineral and chemical composition: 1, rusty brown mud-dominated coatings with micro-gours, composed of a mixture of clay minerals; 2, white “chalky” coatings (moonmilk) composed of calcite with minor gypsum; 3, cauliflower-shaped coralloids composed of …
The Affordable Diy Mandeye Lidar System For Surveying Caves, And How To Convert 3d Clouds Into Traditional Cave Ground Plans And Extended Profiles,
University of South Florida
The Affordable Diy Mandeye Lidar System For Surveying Caves, And How To Convert 3d Clouds Into Traditional Cave Ground Plans And Extended Profiles, Antun Jakopec, Loris Redovniković, Jurica Jagetić, Janusz Będkowski
International Journal of Speleology
The paper examines the potential use of low-cost LiDAR for cave surveying. Mobile mapping using LiDAR complements traditional speleological surveying using a polygonal traverse. These methods assist each other, with one serving as an independent control measurement for the other, ultimately resulting in a more accurate 3D model. The testing results show that achieving high accuracy and detailed cave representation is possible using open hardware and open-source software. Both spacious and well-indented cave sections and narrow passages barely passable by humans were successfully mapped. The surveying process is significantly faster than traditional cave mapping, as drawing cave sketches by hand …
Caves And Karst Of Kentucky,
University of Kentucky
Caves And Karst Of Kentucky
Special Publication--KGS
Published in cooperation with the National Speleological Society. Includes an overview of Kentucky geology, karst, cave development, list of caves including Mammoth Cave and Carter Caves, historical caves, archaeology, and cave life of Kentucky.
Long Term Protection For Carlsbad Cavern,
Western Kentucky University
Long Term Protection For Carlsbad Cavern
National Cave and Karst Management Symposia
No abstract provided.
Protean Caves And Cyrenean Grottos: The Subterranean World Of Vergil's Fourth Georgic,
Washington University in St. Louis
Protean Caves And Cyrenean Grottos: The Subterranean World Of Vergil's Fourth Georgic, Kirby Schoephoerster
Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Using the studies and methodologies spearheaded by the burgeoning field of geomythology, this project aims to reevaluate one of the most famous works of ancient literature, the Georgics of Vergil, within the context of karst geology. In other words, I plan to critically investigate the famous myth of Aristaeus using a geomythological lens that focuses on how Vergil treats caves and cave systems as related to (his) myth. The didactic poem as a whole, and much less so the myth of Aristaeus, has been assessed relatively little by archaeologists, and by geomythologists not at all. Yet, book four contains an …
Air Pressure Propagation Through Wind Cave And Jewel Cave: How Do Pressure Waves Travel Through Barometric Caves?,
University of South Florida
Air Pressure Propagation Through Wind Cave And Jewel Cave: How Do Pressure Waves Travel Through Barometric Caves?, Andreas Pflitsch, Marc Ohms, Annika Gomell, Daniel Austin
International Journal of Speleology
In barometric caves, air pressure gradients between the outside atmosphere and the cave induce strong bidirectional compensating currents, which control almost all elements of speleoclimatology, including air temperature, humidity, and CO2 dynamics. Therefore, this study set out to investigate air pressure propagation through Wind Cave and Jewel Cave – two major barometric cave systems in the Black Hills of South Dakota, USA. Based on high-resolution air pressure data from both the surface and several measurement sites inside the caves, four systematic changes of pressure waves during their journey through the caves and their related speleoclimatological processes were identified and …
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