Multi-phased and multi-process hypogenic speleogenesis along deep fault system: Plavecká jaskyňa Cave, Malé Karpaty Mountains, Slovakia

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216224%3A14310%2F18%3A00106124" target="_blank" >RIV/00216224:14310/18:00106124 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

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DOI - Digital Object Identifier

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Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Multi-phased and multi-process hypogenic speleogenesis along deep fault system: Plavecká jaskyňa Cave, Malé Karpaty Mountains, Slovakia

Original language description

The Plavecká jaskyňa Cave, near to Plavecké Podhradie village, on the western fault edge of the Malé Karpaty Mountains (Western Slovakia), is a result of multi-phased and multiprocess hypogene speleogenesis in fractured Triassic limestones. Waters ascended along the horst-graben fault boundary of Malé Karpaty Mountains with the Záhorská nížina Lowland (the northeastern part of the Vienna Basin). Morphologically, the cave is featured by (1) phreatic chimneys, cupolas, ceiling pockets, spongework cavities, upward wall channels and upward oriented large scallops, (2) epiphreatic flat corrosion bedrock floors, feeding fissures and wall water-table notches, as well as (3) vadose vents, upward half tubes and shallow cupolas formed by condensation corrosion on the cooler overlying walls and ceilings. Initial fault-controlled phreatic morphologies of the cave formed most probably due to carbonic dissolution of limestones caused by ascending CO2-rich water. Flat corrosion bedrock floors breached by fissure discharge feeders, on the edges with wall water table notches, indicate a rapid lateral corrosion by the sulfuric low thermal waters. Three subhorizontal passages developed at former levels of the piezometric surface during water table stagnations corresponding with phases of decelerated or interrupted tectonic subsidence of the Vienna Basin graben structure. The passage of the lower level at about same elevation as the recent spring of slightly warmer groundwater in front of the cave (11.6 to 13.6 °C; about to 3 °C warmer than the regional mean-annual temperature). In addition to morphological indicators (flat corrosion floors, fissure discharge feeders, convention niches, upward half tubes and shallow cupolas), the sulfuric low-temperature acid speleogenetical phases of the Plavecká jaskyňa are indicated by the presence of gypsum in association with hydrated kaolinite, illite, clinochlore and montmorillonite (XRD) in rare deposits. Calcite popcorn rims were also deposited due to evaporation processes at the edges of feeding fissures that were still active as thermal vents when the water table has been dropped. Hydrogen sulfide involved in the sulfuric acid speleogenesis was most probably released from hydrocarbon reservoirs of adjacent Vienna Basin during tectonic movements. Features similar to those detected in the Plavecká jaskyňa, were identified also in some other caves of the Plavecký Karst (e.g., Plavecká priepasť Shaft, Pec Cave).

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

O - Miscellaneous

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

10505 - Geology

Project

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Continuities

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2018

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů