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Morfologías hipogénicas y procesos hidrotermales en la cueva del Puerto
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This work analyzes the different morphologies that are located in the cave of Puerto, Murcia and its distribution, these have their origin in processes derived from hydrothermal and hypogenic processes. The numerous morphologies of hypogenic character of the Puerto cave make it a reference cavity for the study and evolution of hydrothermal networks, repeating these processes in most of Murcia's cavities
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... Las evidencias de su origen hipogénico-hidrotermal se empiezan a publicar en diversos estudios a partir de 2014 la publicación sobre cuevas hipogénicas en la Región de Murcia constata su origen hidrotermal (Ros et al., 2014a y b). Posteriores trabajos confirman y detallan estas características (Gázquez et al., 2016), (Ros et al., 2016a(Ros et al., y b, 2018. ...
... La cueva se caracteriza por una destacada espeleogénesis y morfologías de origen hipogénico-hidrotermal; canales, toberas, feeders, conductos ciegos, cúpulas de diversos tamaños, cristalizaciones de aragonito y yesos masivos han sido descritos en varias publicaciones (Ros et al., 2016a(Ros et al., y b, 2018b(Ros et al., , 2021. ...
Cueva del Puerto es la única cavidad acondicionada para todos los públicos en la
Región de Murcia, constituye uno de los recorridos más notables y visitables de cuevas
hipogénicas de Europa, su visita constituye todo un descubrimiento de la espeleogénesis
y morfologías en cavidades hipogénicas-hidrotermales
Signs of hypogenic speleogenesis have been detected in a number of caves of the Murcia Region (SE Spain), in some cases revealing active speleogenetic mechanisms rarely observed in hypogene cavities elsewhere in the world. Here, we investigate the hypogenic morphologies and speleothems of four caves in this region, namely Sima de la Higuera, Sima Destapada, Cueva del Agua and Cueva del Puerto. Also, other ten caves showing evidence for hypogenic speleogenesis has been preliminary described. Processes related to ancient and current hydrothermal activity, the discordance of permeability structures in the adjacent beds and the spatial arrangement of the regional hydrogeology have given rise to maze patterns and typical subaqueous hypogenic morphologies. These include spongework mazes, rising wall channels and shafts, feeders, bubble trails, solution pockets, megascallops and rising of chains cupolas, among others. Carbonic acid speleogenesis is responsible for the formation of most of these cave features; however, evidence of sulfuric acid speleogenesis (SAS) has been observed in Cueva del Puerto and Sima del Pulpo, which host massive secondary gypsum deposits. Speleothems typically linked to hydrothermal water upwelling and CO2 degassing close to the water table are present in most of these cavities, including folia, calcite spar crystals, cave clouds, calcite rafts deposits and several types of cave raft cones. The wide variety of hypogenic speleogenesis indicators and speleothems whose genesis is unconnected to meteoric water seepage reveals that the hydrothermal field of the Murcia Region hosts one of the densest active hypogenic subterranean networks in the world.
Las cuevas y simas en la región de Murcia siempre nos han causado ciertos interrogantes,
pues se daban circunstancias que no coincidían con el modelo tradicional, numerosas las
preguntas ¿cómo se originaban esas formas curiosas, tubos de presión?, cúpulas?, galerías
ciegas?, procesos corrosivos que no acabábamos de entender. Después de muchos años se
va poniendo orden y se aclaran muchos de estos, los descubrimientos de sima Destapada, los
espeleotemas en sima de la Higuera y las exploraciones submarinas en cueva del Agua, y más
recientemente las nuevas exploraciones en cueva del Agua de Lorca nos llevan a relacionar
todas estas cavidades en una orogénesis similar con características comunes y nos orientan
hacía procesos hipogénicos
Until very recently, most of the caves in Mallorca were considered to be of epigenic origin, where the endokarst phenomena was mainly originated by the circulation of meteoric waters carrying biogenic CO2, and by different speleogenetic mechanisms associated to the littoral mixing zone along with extensive breakdown processes. The breakthroughs achieved along the last years have contributed not only to identify new morphologies, but also to distinguish a new speleogenetic process hitherto unknown in Mallorca: the hypogenic speleogenesis, related to a water recharge of deep origin. To address challenging questions regarding with it, a detailed investigation of suspicious caves harbouring hypogenic evidences was carried out, yielding unexpected data. In this paper, special attention is given to the morphological signs found predominantly in caves located within the south-western sector of Migjorn karst region and surrounding area. The following morphologies have been documented: a morphologic suite of rising flow integrated by feeders, rising wall channels and outlets; dead ends; partitions; the associations of cave rims-vents and bubble trails-folia; as well as likely condensation-corrosion features in the form of bell-holes and small subspherical chambers.
Kupole so korozijske tvorbe v obliki kupol, znane tako s krasa v apnencih kot tudi v anhidritih. Medtem ko je bilo v literaturi precej razpravljanja o verjetnem nastanku in pomenu teh oblik, pa je zelo malo podrobnih opisov teh oblik ter definicij tega pojma. Zato je s kupolami precej težav: Kaj je kupola? Kje se kupole pojavljajo? Kakšne so kupole? Ali so kupole povezane z določenimi drugimi oblikami? Ali so kupole oblike v stropu ali oblike, ki jih je strop prerezal? Kako kupole nastajajo? Kako lahko rešimo ta vprašanja? V prispevku je veliko odgovorov na ta vprašanja, toda večji del terenskih raziskav in teoretičnega dela bo treba šele opraviti. Najpomembnejša so podrobna terenska opazovanja in merjenja kupol ter tistih oblik, ki so z njimi povezane. Tako bo mogoče rešiti vprašanje kupol in tako bo mogoče izvedeti še več o nenavadnih jamah, v katerih se kupole pojavljajo.
Cupolas are dome-shaped solution cavities that occur in karst caves, and have been described in both limestone and gypsum karst. While there has been considerable discussion in the literature concerning the likely origin and significance of these features, there has been little in the way of detailed description of the features themselves and little attention has been given to the definition of the term. Consequently, there are a number of troubles with cupolas: - What is a cupola? Where do cupolas occur? What are cupolas like? Do cupolas occur with particular types of speleogens? Are cupolas features of ceilings or features intersected by ceilings? How do cupolas form? But how can these troubles be resolved? Tentative answers are given here to many of these questions but a great deal of basic field observation and theoretical work is required to solve them. The most important step would be more field observation and measurement of cupolas and of the particular suite of speleogens that occur with them. The troubles with cupolas can be solved and in the process we will come to understand a great deal more about the unusual caves in which they occur.
The Luchena river canyon is an incision in the Pericay range (W of Murcia) which cuts the range from NW to SE. The Ojos de Luchena spring is located at the end of the canyon, and is the most copious spring on the area, with a flow around 210 l/s in average, and slightly thermal waters. Near to the spring there is a cave with evident hypogenic features, with very well exposed dissolution features because there are scarce speleothems which can hide them.
The topographic map was made by the Asociación de Espeleólogos Velezanos (AEV) in 2011-2013. The cave has 561 m in length and 41 m in depth. Actually, the cave is the largest in the municipality of Lorca, and it is one of 10 most important ones in the Murcia province because of its dimensions.
The genesis of the cave is closely related to the evolution of the Luchena river canyon during the Quaternary age and with the Ojos de Luchena spring. The spring is the only discharge-point of the vast karstic carbonate aquifer of Pericay-Luchena. Due to a boundary fault, marls and marly limestones overlie the Jurassic limestone that formed the aquifer, and cause the existence of deep water with upflow to the spring. The evolution of the canyon morphology determines that the spring changed his location due the river incision in the canyon. The cave is the consequence of this, because is related to former position of the spring during a stage of stability in the canyon evolution, around 100 m over the current channel.
In the cave it is easy to recognize characteristic features of the hypogenic caves such as feeders, outlets, megascallops, cupolas, rising chains of cupolas and rising wall channels. Passages are related to bedding planes, dipping 70° to the SE, and with almost vertical fractures. For this reason, there is a verticalized labyrinth of passages, with two main horizontal levels of galleries, which may indicate the development of the cave in two stages. Speleothems are scarce and only they are in very specific places, which could be interpreted as a sign of youthfulness in the genesis of the cave.
The flat areas of eastern and southern Mallorca host a remarkable coastal karst, where
Cova des Pas de Vallgornera stands out due to its length (more than 74 km) and its special
morphological suite. The pattern of the cave is quite heterogeneous showing sharp differences
produced by the architecture of the Upper Miocene reef: spongework mazes and collapse
chambers dominate in the reef front facies, whereas joint-guided conduits are the rule in the
back reef carbonates. Regarding the speleogenesis of the system, a complex situation is
envisaged involving three main agents: coastal mixing dissolution, drainage of meteoric diffuse
recharge, and hypogene basal recharge related to local geothermal phenomena. The cave
system is disposed in two main tiers of passages, of which geomorphologic interpretations
are derived from their elevation data. The evolutionary trends as well as the chronology of the
different cave sections are difficult to establish owing to the frequent shifting of the coastal
base level during the Plio-Quaternary. In this respect, the genesis and evolution of the cave
were fully controlled by sea-level fluctuations in the Western Mediterranean basin, with the
main phases of cave formation, based on vertebrate paleontological data, going back to
mid-Pliocene times.
Sima de la Higuera Cave (Pliego, Southeast Spain) has been recently adapted for speleological use. Nevertheless, there is still no a wide knowledge on the so-called hypogenic origin of this cavity. The peculiar genetic mechanisms can be an added value for exploitation as a speleo-turistic cave. By studying geomorphologic features and speleothem characteristics it has been possible to deduce the predominant speleogenetic mechanism (hypogenic/epigenic) which controlled the evolution of this cave. The hypogenic mechanism that gave rise to this cavity was associated with rich-CO2 hydrothermal fluid rising, deep in origin and disconnected from meteoric water seepage. In this paper we have studied some geomorphologic evidences and unusual speleothems from Sima de la Higuera Cave. In the upper level (-74 m) large scallops appear, in relation to mechanism of hypogenic speleogenesis, usually indicating the direction of ascendant flows, as well as corrosion crusts made of micritic calcite. In addition, bubble’s trails have been identified in relation to CO2 bubbles rising. Centimeter-sized calcite “spars” of secondary precipitation often appear filling fractures in the host rock. Other typical hypogenic speleothems match in this cave such as calcite raft cones, folia, cave’s clouds, coral towers or calcite raft deposits suggesting the influence of thermal water in the cave speleogenesis. Furthermore, in this cave the first occurrence of calcite raft double cones have been indentified, which origin was linked to water table oscillations at the Paraíso Chamber level (-110 m). In the deepest level (-110 m), Mn-Fe oxides have been identified as black coatings that totally cover the cave walls and usually appear on subaerial “boxwork” formations. The wide variety of speleothems not bound to meteoric water seepage turn the Sima de la Higuera Cave into an unusual example of hypogenic cave in Spain.
Certain caves formed by dissolution of bedrock have maze patterns composed of closed loops in which many intersecting fractures or pores have enlarged simultaneously. Their origin can be epigenic (by shallow circulation of meteoric groundwater) or hypogenic (by rising groundwater or production of deep-seated solutional aggressiveness). Epigenic mazes form by diffuse infiltration through a permeable insoluble caprock or by floodwater supplied by sinking streams. Most hypogenic caves involve deep sources of aggressiveness. Transverse hypogenic cave origin is a recently proposed concept in which groundwater of mainly meteoric origin rises across strata in the distal portions of large flow systems, to form mazes in soluble rock sandwiched between permeable but insoluble strata. The distinction between maze types is debated and is usually based on examination of diagnostic cave features and relation of caves to their regional setting. In this paper, the principles of mass transfer are applied to clarify the limits of each model, to show how cave origin is related to groundwater discharge, dissolution rate, and time. The results show that diffuse infiltration and floodwater can each form maze caves at geologically feasible rates (typically within 500 ka). Transverse hypogenic mazes in limestone, to enlarge significantly within 1 Ma, require an unusually high permeability of the non-carbonate beds (generally ≥ 10−4 cm/s), large discharge, and calcite saturation no greater than 90%, which is rare in deep diffuse flow in sedimentary rocks. Deep sources of aggressiveness are usually required. The origin of caves by transverse hypogenic flow is much more favorable in evaporite rocks than in carbonate rocks.
