dog jumping in snow image removed to save space

1

• dog jumping in snow image removed to save space

2
today

• Logistics
• Silverton Winter Interim course
• Your paper is due 11/20
• Exam two is a week from Thursday
• Cool caves
• Sotano de las Golondrinas, Mexico
• Riverbluff Cave, Missouri
• Karst topography and groundwater

3
Sotano de Las Golondrinas
http//youtube.com/watch?vdHKMeMyqKxI
http//youtube.com/watch?vh2bqxZs0iCc
4
Riverbluff Cave, MO

• turtle shells
• peccary tracks
• lion and bear scratches on walls
• horse bones
• Douglas fir needles

5
Riverbluff Cave, MO

• Never-before-seen turtle shells
• Never-before-seen horse bones
• Ice Age pigs
• 15 foot tall extinct bear scratchings
• American Lion scratchings
• untouched for at least 55 thousand years
• some remains 850,000 yrs. old

6
Riverbluff Cave, MO

• stalactites, stalagmites, columns, cave bacon,
  draperies, flowstone, soda straws

7
(No Transcript)
8
(No Transcript)
9
(extinct) American lion scratches
660,000 year old turtle shells
(extinct) short faced bear scratches
http//www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?story
Id7283494
10
Limestone Karst Regions
11
Karst topography dissolution of limestone

• Dissolution is particularly important for
  sedimentary rocks containing carbonate minerals.
  Common carbonate minerals include
• calcite (CaCO3) or calcium carbonate in
  limestone
• dolomite (CaMg(CO3)2 or calcium magnesium
  carbonate in dolomite
• Ground water is a bit acidic. It contains
  carbonic acid (H2CO3), from dissolved carbon
  dioxide gas.

12
Karst topography dissolution of limestone
So. when you add water (H2O), calcium carbonate
(CaCO3), and carbon dioxide (CO2), you get
calcium bicarbonate (Ca(HCO3)2), which is very
soluble and easily removed! H2O CO2 CaCO3
Ca(HCO3)2

• Calcium carbonate can also be PRECIPITATED, which
  means turned from a liquid into a solid
• When conditions are right for precipitation,
  calcite forms mineral coatings that cement the
  existing rock grains together or it can fill
  fractures

13
cave pearls!
14
(No Transcript)
15

• limestone bluff image removed to save space

16
(No Transcript)
17
a sink
18
caverns

• Large, open underground areas occurring in
  massive limestone depositions at or near the
  surface
• Two Stages of Formation

19
caverns two stages of formation

• Initial Excavation
• --Water dissolves the limy bedrock leaves
  voids
• Decoration Stage
• --Water leaves behind the compounds it had
  been carrying
• in solution

20
speleothems formed by precipitated deposits of
minerals on the wall, floor, or roof of a cave

• Stalactite pendant structure hanging downward
  from a caverns roof
• Stalagmite projecting structure growing upward
  from a caverns floor

?Stalactite
?Stalagmite
Carlsbad Caverns, NM
21
Florida sinkholes

• 
  Winterpark sinkhole
• ? Increased with lowering of the water table
  because water helped provide stability of rock