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The origin of hydrothermal karst cavities was connected with the Variscan hydrothermal process. The cavities were formed and filled by crystalline calcite. The process was accompanied by the intensive dolomitisation. Younger phase of hydrothermal karstification was not connected with vein-filling, but with the deep circulation of groundwater, probably associated with neovolcanic activity in the Bohemian Massif. This is supported by pollen grains and decomposed volcanic ash in speleothems which were formed after the major phases of speleogenesis. It is supposed that caves in the Konûprusy Devonian were formed in confined aquifer under phreatic and batyphreatic conditions. Thermal conditions appeared when paleogeothermic gradient was increased due to intensive neovolcanic activity. Hydrothermal karstification partly changed the morphology of caves. The maximum temperatures were stated to 60-700 C from large calcite crystals precipitated under phreatic and deeply phreatic conditions. The piezometric level was situated above limestones in Upper Cretaceous platform siliciclastics as indicated by numerous subvertical phreatic tubes („depressions") filled with sunkened Cretaceous and Tertiary sediments after the water buyoancy support decreased. Popcorn-like silicified Konûprusy Rosettes can be result of decrease of thermal water level and mixing with infiltrating meteoric waters. Outer zones of large calcite crystals with precipitation temperatures of about 400 C can indicate the gradual cooling of the whole system.
The caves developed in Lower Paleozoic carbonate rocks of the Bohemian Karst are interpreted as a result of a hydrothermal dissolution. The main evidence includes 1) a close spatial link of the caves to hydrothermal calcite veins, 2) a variety of distinctive dissolution forms indicative of non-gravitational hydrodynamics, and 3) presence of specific, exotic precipitates within the caves. Moreover, most of the features typical of the caves of the Bohemian Karst can be readily compared to those of the Zbrasov Caves of Moravia that have been known for long as a typical example of hydrothermal caves. The origin of at least some hydrothermal caves in the Bohemian Karst and elsewhere in the Czech Republic could have been tied to the circulation of warm fluids along active tectonic lineaments. A line of indirect evidence indicates that in the Bohemian Massif, transient pulses of fluid activity that were responsible for the origin of hydrothermal caves may have occurred since Tertiary period.
Fluid movements along major north-south-trendingseismotectonic zones were responsible for the development of hydrothermal caves in limestones of the Bohemiankarst and elsewhere in the Bohemian Massif, Czech Republic. Many caves and caverns are closelylinked to hydrothermal calcite veins and reveal characteristiccupola-form cavities and exotic internal precipitates.A possible role of sulphuric acid speleogenesis in the origin of the caves is also discussed
Vertical and subvertical pipes are circular to ovate in shape with diameters from 2-4 m up to tens of metres and with proven depth up to 82 m. Some of them terminate by horizontal cave levels at depth. Pipes are filled with complicated sedimentary sequences with clearly developed collapse structures. The fill is composed of pre-Cenomanian, Cenomanian-Turonian and Tertiary deposits. Internal structures of the fill indicate multi-phase collapses. Cretaceous and pre-Cretaceous deposits are often subvertical with chaotic internal texture. In the centre of some of pipes, there are traces of younger collapses, most probably induced by continuing karstification and suffosion at depth. Tertiary deposits overlay the Cretaceous ones unconformably; they show gentler centripetal inclination, but in places they fill the central parts of collapsed fill. The origin of solution pipes is connected with hydrothermal activity most probably during Paleogene to Miocene, when the surface of limestones was still covered by slightly eroded cover of Upper Cretaceous platform sediments. Hydrothermal karst forms developed up to the surface of limestones as the piezometric level was situated within the Cretaceous cover. After the lost of buoyancy support of water, sedimentary cover started to move (collapse) down.
(Pre)-Cretaceous sediments that fill extensive hydrothermal dissolution cavities in Devonian limestones in the Certovy schody Quarry contain locally abundant halloysite clays. In most samples halloysite coexists with metahalloysite and kaolinite that form snowy-white and blue-green masses intimately intergrown with manganese oxides. The determination of members of kaolinite group minerals was the main purpose of this study. X-ray diffraction method and thermal analyses enabled to differentiate halloysite from metahalloysite and kaolinite. Tubular morphology of halloysite was observable in electron micrographs. A study of the stored material confirmed continuous transition from the halloysite form over interstratified states (mixed-layer halloysite-metahalloysite crystal structure) to metahalloysite. Field observations indicate that halloysite formed due to selective in situ hydrothermal alteration of clayey matrix of quartz sandstone and/or breccias of unclear original composition that occur within the sedimentary fill. The proposed model for halloysite formation involves alteration by warm (< 80°C) acid solutions that migrated through the system of tectonic fractures, dissolved limestone host and altered overlying sedimentary members that collapsed into the resulting hydrothermal depressions. Since halloysite partially replaced also Cenomanian sediments, the hydrothermal alteration must have occurred only during post-Cenomanian time.
Hydraulic and hydrochemical relationships between a medium gradient river and a karst aquifer were studied by water level and temperature logging combined with water geochemistry and d13C. The cave lakes are separated from the river by a floodplain up to 150 m wide formed by a gravel and sand layer up to 13 m thick covered with finegrained floodplain sediments. During minor discharge peaks (water level in the river , 1.5 m above the normal river stage), a water level oscillation in the cave lakes situated 40 to 190 m away from river is induced by the river level oscillation, but the river water does not enter any of the lakes. The groundwater chemistry in the cave lakes differs from that of the river water. Low bicarbonate content and high d13C values indicate that some of cave lakes’ waters have undergone CO2 degassing and calcite precipitation. During a major flood (recurrence interval . 100 years, level rising 7 m above the normal stage), the river water rapidly flooded the caves through openings in the river canyon (floodflow injection), while those connected to the river via alluvium only were flooded by an elevated groundwater stage, and the resulting water level rise was only about 50 percent of the river level increase. A simple hydraulic model was successfully used to simulate and explain the water table oscillations in the cave lakes. Flood-flow injection has recently been substantially reduced by low-permeability, fine-grained late Holocene fluvial sediments that cap coarse gravels in the river floodplain. Fast speleogenesis by flood injection would be expected in periods when the river canyon was bare or filled by gravel alone (glacial periods, transition to Holocene). Ice jams causing local increases in the river level are recognized as one of factors that can be important in speleogenesis.
The Na Javorce Cave is located in the Bohemian Karst, Czech Republic, near the Karlštejn castle, about 25 km SW of Prague. The cave was discovered as a result of extensive exploration including cave digging and widely employed capping of narrow sections. Exploration in the cave has already lasted 20 years. The cave is fitted with several hundred meters of fixed and rope ladders and several small fixed bridges across intra-cave chasms. Access to the remote parts of the cave is difficult because of long narrow crawl passages and deep and narrow vertical sections. The Na Javorce Cave became the deepest cave discovered to date in Bohemia with the discovery of its deepest part containing a lake in 2010. The cave was formed in vertically dipping layers of Lower Devonian limestone; it is 1,723 m long and 129 m deep, of which 9 m is permanently flooded (data as of December 2012). The cave is polygenetic, with several clearly separable evolutionary stages. Cavities discovered to date were mostly formed along the tectonic structures of two main systems. One of these systems is represented by vertical faults of generally N-S strike, which are frequently accompanied by vein hydrothermal calcite with crystal cavities. The second fault system is represented by moderately inclined faults (dip 27 to 45°, dip direction to the W). Smaller tube-like passages of phreatic morphology connect the larger cavities developed along the two above-mentioned systems. The fluid inclusion data obtained for calcite developed along both fault systems in combination with C and O stable isotope studies indicate that the hydrothermal calcite was deposited from moderately saline fluids (0.5 to 8.7 wt. % NaCl equiv.) in the temperature range from 58 to 98 °C. The fluids were NaCl-type basinal fluids, probably derived from the deeper clastic horizons of the Barrandian sedimentary sequence. The age of the hydrothermal processes is unknown; geologically it is delimited by the Permian and Paleogene. The hydrothermal cavities are small compared to cavities formed during the later stages of karstification. The majority of the known cavities were probably formed by corrosion by floodwater derived from an adjacent river. This process was initiated during the Late Oligocene to Early Miocene, as was confirmed by typical assemblage of heavy minerals identical in the surface river sediments and in clastic cave sediments. The morphology of most cavities is phreatic or epiphreatic, with only local development of leveled roof sections (“Laugdecken”). The phreatic evolution of the cave is probably continuing into the present in its deepest permanently flooded part, which exhibits a water level close to that of the adjacent Berounka River. Nevertheless, the chemistry of the cave lake differs from that of the river water. The cave hosts all the usual types of cave decoration (including locally abundant erratics). The most interesting speleothem type is cryogenic cave carbonate, which was formed during freezing of water in relation to the presence of permafrost during the Glacial period. The occurrence of cryogenic cave carbonate here indicates that the permafrost of the Last Glacial period penetrated to a depth of at least 65 m below the surface.