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Surface Processes
Published in F.G.H. Blyth, M. H. de Freitas, A Geology for Engineers, 2017
F.G.H. Blyth, M. H. de Freitas
Water circulating underground helps to extend channels and caverns by solution, particularly in limestone formations; streams which once flowed on the surface disappear down swallow holes and open joints, Fig. 3.3, and continue their journey by flowing along bedding planes and joints below ground. In the Cheddar caves of the Mendips of S.W. England the former surface stream now has its course 15 to 18 m below the floor of the caverns, which are now dry. The Cheddar Gorge, 128 m deep at one point, is probably a large cave system which has become exposed at the surface by the collapse of its roof. As water charged with calcium bicarbonate trickles over the walls and drips from the roofs of caves, part of it evaporates and calcium carbonate is slowly re-deposited as loss of carbon dioxide occurs (i.e. the equation given on p. 32 is reversible). In this way masses of stalactite, hanging from the roof or coating the walls of a cave, are formed, sometimes making slender columns where they have become united with stalagmites which have been slowly built up from the floor of the cave, onto which water has dripped over a long period of time. Sheet stalactite coats the walls of many caverns and may be coloured by traces of iron and lead compounds.
Saving and conserving the caves: reflections on 37 years of listings, disputes, submissions and court cases
Published in Australian Journal of Earth Sciences, 2019
An important step forward in cave and karst conservation, education and management would be to establish a Research Centre for Caves and Karst or to establish a broader focussed centre for caves, karst and geoheritage. While there are key groups of researchers working on cave related fields including; karst hydrology at the University of New South Wales, stalagmite paleoclimate and speleothem dating at Melbourne University, Newcastle University, and the CSIRO, cave mineralogy at the Australian Museum and vertebrate Paleontology at Flinders University and the Queensland Museum, there is no organisation in Australia that takes a holistic view of the science, conservation, management and interpretation of caves and karst in Australia.
The Holocene of Sweden – a review
Published in GFF, 2022
A stalagmite from the cave Korallgrottan in Jämtland, NW Sweden (Fig. 4) shows an enrichment of both carbon and oxygen isotopes and decreasing speleothem growth rates over the last 4000 years. This has been interpreted as a response to the general cooling trend (Sundqvist et al. 2010). Isotopic shifts at 800–1000 CE and 1300–1700 CE are interpreted as responses to the MWP and LIA, respectively.