Search results for "hypogene"
showing 6 items of 6 documents
New insights on secondary minerals from Italian sulfuric acid caves
2018
Sulfuric acid minerals are important clues to identify the speleogenetic phases of hypogene caves. Italy hosts ~25% of the known worldwide sulfuric acid speleogenetic (SAS) systems, including the famous well-studied Frasassi, Monte Cucco, and Acquasanta Terme caves. Nevertheless, other underground environments have been analyzed, and interesting mineralogical assemblages were found associated with peculiar geomorphological features such as cupolas, replacement pockets, feeders, sulfuric notches, and sub-horizontal levels. In this paper, we focused on 15 cave systems located along the Apennine Chain, in Apulia, in Sicily, and in Sardinia, where copious SAS minerals were observed. Some of the…
An Overview of the Hypogene Caves of Sicily
2017
Karst in Sicily develops in both Messinian gypsum and Mesozoic or Tertiary limestone rocks. Caves are also found in the basalts of Mount Etna. Except for some rare cases, until recently most caves developed in limestone were considered to be of epigenetic origin. The discovery of gypsum in some of these caves, and especially detailed morphological studies, have allowed defining a hypogenic origin for a dozen of caves up to now. In some of these, the hypogenic evidences are very clear, while others remain in doubt because of the widespread presence of well-developed condensation-corrosion morphologies not necessarily related to hydrothermal fluids. This paper reports the present knowledge of…
Acqua Fitusa cave: An example of inactive water-table sulphuric acid cave in Central Sicily
2012
Description of the sulphuric acid cave in Sicily (see pdf attached)
Sulfuric acid caves of Italy: A review
2019
Abstract In Italy, especially along the Apennine Chain, numerous active and inactive sulfuric acid speleogenetic (SAS) caves have been documented in the last two decades. Here we present an overview of these peculiar hypogene systems, illustrating their main geomorphological and mineralogical features, and the microbial signatures observed in the active underground environment. SAS caves are widely distributed in the northern and central Apennines, whereas they are less abundant in the southern Apennines, in the Apulian foreland, in Sicily and in Sardinia. Their location is significantly influenced by lithological and structural rock properties, as they occur in carbonate areas where acidic…
A review on hypogene caves in Italy
2014
Although hypogene cave systems have been described since the beginning of the 20th century, the importance in speleogenesis of ascending fluids that acquired their aggressiveness from in-depth sources has been fully realized only in the last decades. Aggressiveness of waters can be related to carbonic and sulfuric acids and the related corrosion-dissolution processes give rise to different types of caves and underground morphologies. The abundance of hydrothermal springs and associated travertine deposits, and the widespread interaction between volcanic or sub-volcanic phenomena and karst in many sectors of the Italian peninsula are a strong evidence of hypogene speleogenesis. Furthermore, …
Energy and speleogenesis: Key determinants of terrestrial species richness in caves
2017
Abstract The aim of this study was to unravel the relative role played by speleogenesis (i.e., the process in which a cave is formed), landscape‐scale variables, and geophysical factors in the determination of species richness in caves. Biological inventories from 21 caves located in the southeastern Iberian Peninsula along with partial least square (PLS) regression analysis were used to assess the relative importance of the different explanatory variables. The caves were grouped according to the similarity in their species composition; the effect that spatial distance could have on similarity was also studied using correlation between matrices. The energy and speleogenesis of caves account…