Origin of double-tower raft cones in hypogenic caves
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2013Abstract
In the present paper, we describe the genetic mechanism that causes the precipitation of raft cones in caves. These
speleothems usually form in a hydrothermal and epiphreatic environment where dripwater, dripping repeatedly over the same spot,
sinks calcite rafts that were floating on the water surface of a cave pool. In particular, the paper describes a new variety of raft cones
that were recently discovered in the Paradise Chamber of the Sima de la Higuera Cave (Murcia, south-eastern Spain) based on their
morphological and morphometric characteristics. These speleothems, dubbed ‘double-tower cones’, have a notch in the middle and
look like two cones, one superimposed over the other. The genetic mechanism that gave rise to the double-tower cones must include
an intermediate stage of rapid calcite raft precipitation, caused by a drop in the water table and by changes in cave ventilation
leading to greater carbon dioxide (CO2) degassing and evaporation over the surface of the the...
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Geología
Mineralogía