Download PDF - Speleogenesis
Download PDF - Speleogenesis
Download PDF - Speleogenesis
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4<br />
NCKRI Special Paper Series No.1<br />
Significant advances in understanding of<br />
speleogenesis in hypogene (deep-seated) and confined<br />
(artesian) settings made during recent years remain<br />
somewhat fragmented and uncoordinated. This is partly<br />
because discussions of the particular cases of “atypical”<br />
speleogenesis (sulfuric acid, hydrothermal, in some sense<br />
– speleogenesis in evaporites) focus attention on<br />
geochemical processes of solutional porosity creation<br />
with the hydrogeologic framework of cave formation<br />
often remaining poorly understood. There is a misleading<br />
trend to label particular types of speleogenesis, or even<br />
types of karst, by the dissolutional mechanism assumed to<br />
have created the caves. This obscures the fact that most<br />
hypogenic/confined karst systems share many major<br />
common features in their geo/hydrogeological settings,<br />
patterns and morphologies. Although geochemical<br />
attributes and dissolution mechanisms are indispensable<br />
components of the speleogenetic environment, the<br />
principal component is groundwater flow. Other attributes<br />
largely depend on the position of a given karst system in<br />
the basinal groundwater flow system and evolution of<br />
boundary conditions. By way of analogy, in creating<br />
dissolutional porosity the groundwater flow system is a<br />
“master,” the type of recharge is a “tool” and<br />
dissolutional mechanisms are the “fuels” to power the<br />
tools. The shape, pattern and size of holes produced by a<br />
tool (dentist drill, hand drill, borehole drill bit, bulldozer<br />
or excavator) depend more on the intentions of a master<br />
and the type of tool rather than on the fuel that drives it.<br />
This paper intends to give an overview of the<br />
principal environments, main processes and<br />
manifestations of hypogenic speleogenesis, in order to<br />
show the place of hypogenic karst systems in the basinal<br />
groundwater flow systems, thus demonstrating the<br />
common genetic background of various styles of<br />
hypogenic karst and caves that were previously<br />
considered unrelated, specific either to lithologies and/or<br />
chemical mechanisms. I intend to demonstrate the<br />
fundamental importance of the type of flow system in the<br />
formation of hypogenic (confined) karst and caves, and<br />
establish hypogenic karst as one of two major types of<br />
karst systems.<br />
The appreciation of the widespread occurrence of<br />
hypogenic karst systems, marked specifics in their origin<br />
and development, and their scientific and practical<br />
importance, calls for revisiting and expanding the current<br />
paradigm of karst and cave science.