Petrographic and isotopic evidence for late-stage processes in sulfuric acid caves of the Guadalupe Mountains, New Mexico, USA

INTRODUCTION Caves of sulfuric acid origin retain diagnostic minerals and features that allow reconstruction of their geochemical history (Polyak & Provencio, 2001). This paper centers on caves in the Guadalupe Mountains, New Mexico, specifically their latest transition from H2SO4 speleogenesis to processes dominated by CO2 equilibria. Much cave research today yields paleoclimate data from meteoric speleothems (Fairchild & Baker, 2012). Instead, this paper emphasizes processes and features specific to the caves themselves. Such information can help identify former conditions in similar caves, and is useful for organizing future studies of geochronology and paleoclimate.

• Publication year

  2012

• Venue

  International Journal of Speleology

• Publication date

  2012-05-16

• Fields of study

  Environmental Science, Geology

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.5038/1827-806X.41.2.10
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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