Minerals and speleothems of the József-hegy Cave (Budapest, Hungary)

Abstract

With the discovery of the József-hegy Cave, a cave of hydrothermal origin with an abundance of minerals unknown so far in Hungary came to light. Diversity and the frequency of the occurrence of crystals make this cave similar to the Lechuguilla Cave, even if the dimensions of the mineral precipitations and the passages do not compare in scale. The variety and mass of carbonates and sulphates are surprising. This paper describes the minerals and speleothems of the József-hegy Cave, their occurrence and genesis, including determined ages. The 41 U/Th measurements suggest that speleothems begun to develop in the upper level of the cave more than 350 ka ago. Some of these dated old speleothems were developing in dry passages, thus the uppermost passages of the József-hegy Cave have been dry at least for 350 ka. The karst water level was still at the main passage 200 ka ago and dropped to 120 m asl by the time of ~100 ka before present. Abstract:

Az utóbbi 20 év barlangkutatási eredményei a Budai-hegységben (különös tekintettel a Rózsadomb környékére)

“…(LEÉL-ŐSSY SZ. 1995, 1997a, b, 2005LEÉL-ŐSSY & SURÁNYI 2003;LEÉL-ŐSSY et al 2011) már műszeres anyagvizsgálatokat is végzett. NAGY S. (2008), ERŐSS (2010), POROS (2011), POROS et al (2012, GYŐRI et al (2011), valamint újabban VIRÁG et al (2011, 2013a és VÖRÖS et al (2013) további budai barlangok kép -ződményeit vizs gálta.…”

Genesis of folia in a non-thermal epigenic cave (Matanzas, Cuba)

“…To the list of 25 caves reported in Audra et al (2009), we have added La Baume Cave in France (reported in Davis, 2012), Odelsteinhöhle in Austria (Plan and De Waele, 2011), Cave of the Winds, Colorado, and Fort Stanton Cave, New Mexico, both reported in Davis (2012), Cueva de Villa Luz in Mexico (Hose, 2009), the Sima de la Higuera near Murcia in Spain (Gázquez and Calaforra, 2013), the cavelets of Glenwood Canyon, Colorado (Polyak et al, 2013), and the Santa Catalina Cave near Matanzas in Cuba, subject of this paper. Most of the caves in which folia have been reported are of thermal and/or hypogenic origin, such as Sima de la Higuera (Gázquez and Calaforra, 2013), Devil's Hole in Nevada (Kolesar and Riggs, 2004), Giusti cave in Tuscany, Italy (Piccini, 2000), and the Buda Hills caves (Takacsné Bolner, 1993;Leel-Ossy et al, 2011). However, this is not the rule, as folia have also been described from epigenic-cold caves, such as Hurricane Crawl Cave in California (Davis, 2012) and Odelsteinhöhle in Styria, Austria (Plan and De Waele, 2011).…”

Linking mineral deposits to speleogenetic processes in Cova des Pas de Vallgornera (Mallorca, Spain)

“…At certain locations the hot waters rising from depth are responsible for the precipitation of an abundant and diverse suite of carbonates and sulfates (gypsum, barite, and celestine), along with some exotic minerals (e.g., fluorite, quartz, etc. ; Dublyansky, 1995;Leél-Őssy et al, 2011). In contrast, in CPV the minerals are not deposited directly from deep-seated thermal groundwaters, but instead, they are a product of the interaction between mineralized warm brackish waters and the carbonate bedrock or preexisting minerals.…”

“…Although less abundant and diverse when compared to the sulfuric acid caves, the mineralogy of thermal cavities has certain characteristics; among them, the presence of tabular barite and celestine crystals, as well as quartz, opal, or chalcedony that coat or even replace cave bedrock walls (Takácsné Bolner, 1989;Leél-Őssy et al, 2011).…”