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Abstract:
Integrated cave systems can either form at or near the surface of the earth (epigenic) or at some depth below the earth's surface (hypogenic)For caves that form in fractured limestone, the two most common types of cave-system morphologies are branchwork and mazeworkBranchwork caves are composed of tributaries that coalesce in the downstream direction, similar to surface streamsMazework caves exhibit two or more sets of parallel passages intersecting in a grid-like patternThe majority of epigenic caves exhibit branchwork morphologies, which represent the dominance of individual flow pathsIn contrast, mazework caves develop when dissolution occurs along numerous flow pathsWhereas most epigenic caves are related to surficial meteoric flow systems, some mazework caves are thought to have formed in hypogene environments where rising thermal water cools in response to the geothermal gradientOur objective is to examine the fundamental cause for the difference in morphology between epigenic and thermal hypogenic cave systems using numerical modelsIn particular, we are examining the competition between different flow paths in fractured limestone undergoing dissolutional enlargementAs noted in previous numerical studies, epigenic systems are characterized by the dominance of a single flow path, which is consistent with the structure of epigenic cavesSo, in order to explain the structure of maze caves, one has to explain why no single flow path attains dominanceThe retrograde solubility of calcite coupled with heat transfer from the fluid to the rock is hypothesized to provide the mechanism by which dissolutional power is distributed among all competing flow pathsNumerical models of fluid flow, heat transfer, and calcite dissolution chemistry are integrated to develop a model of hypogene cave initiation in fractured limestoneFlow is assumed to occur in the presence of a spatially variable rock temperature field that is constant through timePreliminary numerical modeling results for a system of parallel fractures demonstrate the differences in the nature of competition between flow paths in epigenic (constant temperature) and hypogenic systems (flow in the presence of a negative thermal gradient)Differences in results using various kinetic models for calcite dissolution are also presentedThe role of aperture variation and distribution in a parallel set of fractures is also examined