a 2013

Can dripwater hydrogeochemistry help us to discover hidden upper-lying cave floor?

PRACNÝ, Pavel and Jiří FAIMON

Basic information

Original name

Can dripwater hydrogeochemistry help us to discover hidden upper-lying cave floor?

Authors

Edition

16th International Congress of Speleology, Brno, Czech Republic, July 21-28, 2013

Other information

Language

English

Type of outcome

Konferenční abstrakt

Field of Study

10500 1.5. Earth and related environmental sciences

Country of publisher

Czech Republic

Confidentiality degree

není předmětem státního či obchodního tajemství

References:

Organization unit

Faculty of Science

ISBN

978-80-87857-08-3

Keywords (in Czech)

skapové vody, kras, jeskyně, speleologický výzkum

Keywords in English

dripwater, karst, cave, speleological exploration

Tags

International impact, Reviewed
Změněno: 29/7/2013 12:47, Mgr. Pavel Pracný, Ph.D.

Abstract

V originále

Hydrogeochemical parameters of cave dripwater contain information about the processes related to the water flow path. One of the processes that may occur is the prior calcite precipitation on hidden upper-lying cave levels. For prediction of such spaces, it was proposed a simplified criterion, UCL = 1/(ECnorm x deltaQn), where ECnorm is a dimensionless “normalised” water conductivity defined as EC/ECusual and deltaQ is a dimensionless drip rate variation defined as sigmaQ/Q. The symbol EC represents the mean conductivity of given drip [mS/m], ECusual is the mean conductivity of ordinary dripwaters in the cave [mS/m], sigmaQ is the standard deviation of given drip rate [drops/min], and Q is the mean drip rate of given drip [drops/min]. The empirical coefficient n is used to correct a “weight” of the deltaQ variable. The criterion was tested on a real data set collected in Punkva Caves (Moravian Karst, Czech Republic). The UCL values ranged from 1.06 to 1.42 in case of the “usual drips” without prior calcite precipitation and reached up to 2.74 in case of an “anomalous drip” that are demonstrably associated with a prior calcite precipitation at the upper cave level. The UCL behavior is consistent with further hydrogeochemical indices as saturation index or Mg/Ca and Sr/Ca ratios.