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ave

Science

The Transactions

o

the British Cave

Research ssociation

BCRA

[

Volume

Number July

984

I

Bison pa in t i ng n

l t am i ra

Yorkshire Stalagmite

Dates

Castleton Water tracing

Invertebrates

from Niah

Grea

t

Cave

Altamira Temperatures

Fiji Caves

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ISSN

0263-760X

C VE

SCIENCE

TRANSACTIONS OF

THE

BRITISH

CAVE

RESEARCH

ASSOCIATION

Volume

11

Number 2

Ju ly

1984

CONTENTS

Uranium se r i e s da t ing o f speleothems, pa r t

I I :

r e su l t s

from

t he Yorkshire Dales

and Impl icat ions

for Cave

Development

and Quaternary

Cl imates

by M Gascoyne

and

D.C.Ford 65

Fur the r wate r - t rac ing experiments a t Cast l e ton

Derbyshire .

by N.S .J .Chr i s topher

Inve r teb ra te s in Niah Great Cave, Batu Niah

National Park , Sarawak

by P. Chapman

Air

Temperatures

and Air

Interchanges in Altamira

Cave

Spain)

by

E. V i l l a r P.L. Fernandez, L.S.Quindos,

J .R.Solana and

J .

Soto

Ambient Temperature Var ia t ions in t he

Hal l

o f Pain t ings

of

Altamira

Cave due to t he presence of v i s i t o r s .

by

E. V i l l a r

A.

Bonet ,

B. Diaz-Caneja,

P.L.

Fernandez,

I . Gut ie r rez

L.S.Quindos,

J .R.Solana

86

89

92

J . Soto 99

Limestone and Volcanic

Caves o f

the F i j i

I s l ands

by

T. G i lb e r t 105

Cover

photo:

Bison pa in t ing in Altamira Cave

y

Eleanor Dominguez

©

Published by and

ob ta inab le from:

The

Br i t i sh Cave

Research

Associa t ion

30 Main Road,

westonzoyland,

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Somerset

TA7

OEB

Copyright

t he Br i t i sh

Cave

Research

Associa t ion 1984. No

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e lec t ronic r e t r i e v a l system,

o r

otherwise used

for commercial

purposes

except fo r s ing le

cop ies

fo r

r esea rch purposes

without

the pr io r wri t t en

consent of

the

authors and o f

t he

Associa t ion .

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8/21/2019 BCRA 11-2-1984


C VE SCIENCE

Transactions o f

the

Bri t i sh

Cave

Re se

arch Associat ion

Vo l

11, No 2

J

uly

1984

URANIUM SERIES DATING

OF

SPELEOTHEMS

PART

II

RESULTS FROM THE YORKSHIRE DALES AND IMPLICATIONS FOR CAVE DEVELOPMENT

AND QUATERNARY CLlMATES

M.Gascoyne D.C.Ford

Ab

s t r ac

t

Resu l t s o f d a t

ing

ov e r 80 s t a l agmit es and lo wstones f rom ma j o r Cr a v e n cave sys t

em

s a

re

d esc r i b ed a nd i n t e rp r e t e d in t e rms o f spe l eog e nes i s a nd geomorphic d ev e l opment o f th e Yo rkshi re

Da les . Lo ng t e rm av e r age d owncut t ing r a te s o f 2

to

8 em p e r thous a nd year s have b e en

c a l c

u l

a t ed f r

om

b a s a l ag es .

of

s

pe

l e

o th ems

a

d ja cen

t t o ma j o r dra

in

a g e c ha

nn

e l s .

Ex

tr ap o l a

t ion

to v a l l e y s

ou t

s ide th

e

caves su gge

s t s

th

a t

the

Da l es a r e

between one an

d

tw

o

m il

l i o n y

ea

r s old .

P eri o

ds

o f h igh

sp e l e

o

th

em

growth

frequ e nc y

a r

e co

r r e l a t

ed with Ho l oc e ne a nd Ip s wi c

h i

a n

in t erg l ac i a l s

an

d low growth wi

th

L ate Dev ens i

an

a nd Wolstonia n

g l

ac i a tio ns in the

B r i t

i sh

Quate r na r y r ecord .

INTRODUCTION

Caves in the Craven

d i s t r i c t

of the

Yorkshire Dales

are among the most

var ied

and

extens ive

in the Br i t i s h

I s l e s .

Their r e la t ionsh ip to

one

another , to the

Carbonife rous

l imestone

in

which they a re formed

and to

l andscape

evolu t ion

of the

a rea

has been considered

by

man y

w r i t

e

r s

:

in

loca l

caving

journa ls

and

in

sc i en t i f i c

papers

by

Sweeting

1950) ,

Waltham 1970 , 1971) and seve ra l

authors

in Waltham 1974a) . Poss ib le

e f f ec t s

of pas t

c l ima t i c changes upon

r a t e s

and

types of

cave development have been

s t r essed

by Warwick

1956,

1971),

Eyre and Ashmead 1967) and othe r

authors

in Waltham 1974a) .

These approaches

have

r e l i ed

upon

f i t t i n g events perceived

in

the Craven cases

( e . g .

the dr

a

ining of

a phrea t i c p a

ssage)

to

some

t imescale

obtained

in o the r par t s

of Br i t a in

where more

da ta

are

ava i l ab le . The

Dales lack almost any

sur f ace depos i t

such as d e l t a i c

sands or bog organics

tha t

are

older

than the l a s t g lac i a t i o n .

This

g l ac i a t i o n i s

known

as

the

Late

Devensian and it i s f i rmly cor re la t ed with t he l a s t glac ia t ions elsewhere in the

Northern Hemisphere. I ce reached i t s maximum depth and ex ten t a

bout

18,000 y

ear s

ago,

when

a l l

of

the Dales

were bur ied . I t s r ecess ion from the

area was

complete by

about 14,000

years

B . P.

Many Craven caves a ppear to preserve much more

anc ien t

depos i t s . These inc lude ca lc i t e

s t a l agmi tes , s t a l a c t i t e s ,

f lowstones,

e t c . , co l l ec t i v e ly

known as

' speleothems ' . Many

speleothems

c an be

dated

by Uranium-

s e r i e s or

othe r absolute ( radiome tr ic) methods, and by

r e l a t i v e methods such as

palaeomagnetism and

palynology.

Rat ios

of the s t ab l e

i so topes

of

ox

y

gen and

carbon

in the

ca lc i t e

may

a l so

give pa laeotempera ture

in format ion .

The

pr inc ip les

and

techniques

o f

these

methods were descr ibed in d e t a i l in Par t I of

th i s

paper

Gascoyne,

Schwarcz

and

Ford ,

1978).

Our purpose in

Pa

r t

I I i s to presen t the U-se r ies da tes we have obta ined for the

Craven

caves, and

to

i n t e rp re t

them with p ar t i cu l a r

regard to the h i s to r y

and the an t iq u i t y

of

l oca l

cave development.

THE

CR VEN

DISTRICT

The

pr inc ipa l cave systems in

Craven

l i e towards

the

southern edge of

the ASkrigg

Block,

a

major s t ru c t u ra l fea ture

of

the basement rocks t h a t

i s

bounded to

the

west

and

south

by

the Dent and

Craven Faul t s

respec t ive ly ,

(Fig

.

1 ) .

Steeply-d ipping

s l a t e s of Ordo

v

i c ian

and

Si lu r i an age

outcrop

in

v a l l ey

f loors near

the

Craven

Faul t s

and are over la iln unconformably

by

up

to

200

m

of

Lower

Carbonife rous Grea t Scar l imestone which dips

gen t ly t o the nor theas t

Edwards and

T ro t t e r ,

1968; Waltham, 1974b). The

l imestone i s

a

pale-grey, massively-bedded

calcaren i te

tha t

conta ins severa l prominent f o s s i l i f e r o u s

and

micr i t i c

hor i

z ons and

numerous

shale

par t ings .

In

i t s uppermost

beds,

it grades i n to the Yoredale Ser i e s , a cyc l i c sequence

of

l imestones ,

sha les

and

sandstones ,

unconformably capped

by

the

Upper

Carbonife rous

Mil l s tone

G r i t .

with in the

Askrigg Block,

the

Great Scar l imestone i s r e l a t i v e l y undis turbed except fo r

a few small , discont inuous

fau l t s

and

shal low fo lds .

However,

these o f t e n play

important

ro les in the

ca

v e development.

Phys ica l

ch a rac t e r i s t i c s of the

c a

ves

have

been descr ibed

in

d e t

a il by

Brook

e t

a l 1981),

and

are summarised in Table 1 . Both phrea t i c

and

vadose passage t ypes a re

common.

Sweeting

1950)

suggested t h a t passages

had t ended to

develop

a t t h ree

p a r t i cu l a r

e leva t ions , and

in terpre ted

these

as

anc ien t wa

t e r t ab l e s .

Waltham

1970, 1971) ,

in

co n t r a s t ,

c o r r e l a t e d the

caves with

geologica l cont ro l s

such as frequency

of

shale par t ings ,

l i t h o lo g i ca l

di f fe rences

between

l imestone

beds, and s t ru c t u ra l i n f luences .

More recen t ly , however,

the p o s s i b i l i t y of

a r eg iona l wate r ta ble or ig in fo r many

of

the

caves

has been rev ived

Atkinson

e t a l . 1978) .

Warwick

1956, 1971) ,

Eyre

and Ash

me ad 1967)

and

Waltham 1974c) have

suggested tha t

the

formation and entrenchment of the caves occurred dur ing i n t e rg l ac i a l s , o r a t t imes of

deglacia t ion when abundant mel twaters

were

re leased. Cave co l l apse

or i n f i l l i n g

with sediments

would be

the

predominant

a c t i v i t i e s

during

g lac i a t i o n s .

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Figure

1.

Cave locat ion map of the Craven d is t r i c t of northwest England,

showing geological sequence and major

f ul ts

M

.

Coal

Measures; M G . =

Millstone Gri t ,

Y.S. = Yoredale Series ,

G.Sc.

= Great Scar Limestone, P .R. =

pre

Carboniferous

rocks.

Heights are in metres above sea

level from

Gascoyne e t l . 1983a).

66

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Sev

e ra l

es t imates

of

the age

of the caves

have bee n

made.

Eyre a

nd Ashmead

19 67)

cor re la t ed t h e i r

gene t ic

sequence for the development of

the

Caster ton F e ll c ave s with the

g l ac i a l chronology proposed by Zeuner 1959). They counted phases of ne t erosion or

depos i t i on back from t he presen t t o in fe r t h a t the large

fo s s i l

tunnels were formed

dur ing

the Antepenult imate

In t e rg l ac i a l .

Brook 1974) cons idered each phase in the development of

the

West

Kingsdale system

to be a

response

to 20-50 m

of

lower ing of the Dale f loor by

glac ie r scour . The system was about 250,000

years

old . Glover 1974) was more caut ious

when

i n t e r p r e t i n g

passage l eve l s in

Gaping

G i l l , suggest ing t h a t

some might be

due only to

local perching e f f ec t s . Waltham 1974c) t en t a t i v e ly placed the caves i n to pos tg lac ia l ,

i n t e r g l ac i a l and

pre

-

g lac i a l groups.

In

1977, Gascoyne,

and

Waltham and

Harmon announced

t he f i r s t u - se r i e s speleothem dates

fo r Craven. Atkinson e t a l 19 78) publ ished Craven ages plus other s from the Mendip Hil lS ,

i n t e r p r e t i n g them in

terms of i n t e r s t ad i a l

and i n t e r g l ac i a l

per iods recognised

in the

Br i t i sh

Quaternary

record

.

They

obtained

high

ages

for

s ing le

samples

from

the

Roof

Tunnel ,

Kingsdale ,

and

the streamway

in White

Scar Cave. These r e su l t s were used to suggest tha t

the high- leve l , fo s s i l tunnels

o f

the

region

had developed i n p re -g lac ia l t imes

beneath

a r eg iona l wa te r tab le . The

tunnels

were

drained

by

r ap id

and

cons iderab le downcutting

dur ing

the f i r s t

glac ia t ion t h a t

occurred .

THE

U-SERIES SPELEOTHEM

S MPLE PROGR MME

For the

work

discussed

here ,

87 di f feren t speleothem

samples

were

c o

l l ec t ed

from

11 d i f f e r en t cave sys te ms (Fig.

1)

. Table 1 summarises topogr a

phic

and sample loca t ion

d e t a i l s .

For

reasons

of

conservat ion, most

of the

speleothems t aken

had

a l ready been broken

by

n a t u r a l

processes

or by previous

v i s i t o r s

. Samples were prepared and

analysed a t the

McMaster u n i v e r s i t y l a b o r a t o r i e s , using the t echniques g iven in Gascoyne 1977b).

T BLE 1 DESCRIPTION OF

C VE

SYSTEMS INVESTIGATED IN THIS STUDY SUMM RIZING

SPELEOGENETIC DETAILS ND PPROXIM TE LOCATIONS

OF SPELEOTHEM S MPLES

sources

of

dimensional

da ta :

Brook e t

a l .

1981;

Waltham

1977;Thompson

1981).

C VE

Lancas t e r

Hole -

Ease

G i l l

Caverns

LOCATION

Caster ton

Fe l l

Gavel

Pot

Leck

F e l l

Lost Leek F e l l

John ' s

Cave

Kingsdale

Kingsdale

Master

Cave

Val ley

Entrance)

Ibbe th

Per i l

Cave

I

Dentdale

ELEVATION

OF ENTR NCE

m a . s . l ) LENGTH

km)

315 46

. 3

327

1 . 2

353

4.8

268

4.0

181

0.9

DEPTH

m)

-

100

110

140

23

67

TYPE

large foss i l

phrea t i c upper

ser ies , with

deep

vadose

entrenchment

fo s s i l

phrea t i c

upper s e r i e s ,

wi th

shal low

vadose

entrenchment

mainly vadose ,

some fo s s i l

phrea t ic

sec t ions

phrea t i c

upper

l eve l with

r ecent

vadose

en trenchment

ac t ive

phrea t ic

tube with recent

vadose

ent rench

ment headwards

from l a rge

col lapse

area

DESCRIPTION

ND

SPELEO

THEM

LOCATIONS

complex

system, many

entrances

formed

by vadose

t r i b u t a r i e s

to

main s t ream,

upper l eve l s contain much

c lay

ill with speleothems ,

lower l eve l s are

c l e a n

washed, f r equent ly

f looded

and

contain only

r ecent

speleothems.

main

s t ream

r ap id ly

descends

in

v e r t i ca l drops

to

syphon,

Gl a s f u r d ' s Passage

above

drops i s

fo s s i l

phrea t i c

tube

p a r t l y - f i l l ed

wi th

sediments, contains

many

speleothems .

en t rance s t ream has

developed complex se r i e s

of

routes down to i n t e r s ec t

Main

Drain,

a 1 . 5 kID s t ream

way

with

fo s s i l high- leve l

sec t ion a t upst ream end

Lyle Cavern Ser ies) and

al te rna t ing

r ecent phrea t i c

or

vadose

sec t ion downstream

to

syphon

. Speleothems

found

in Lyle Cavern Ser ies

and in

Main Drain

ups t ream) .

major dra inage route fo r

caves

on both s ides

o f va l l ey ,

ac t ive phrea t i c sec t ion

upst ream

where


en ter , fo s s i l

phrea t i c sec t ion

downstream which

f loods

occas iona l ly , s ide

en t rance

tube

Roof Tunnel) conta ins

eroded speleothems.

tube

i n t e r s ec t s l a rge co l lapse

chamber,

f lowstones over l i e

grave ls

in

d i s t r i b u t a r y

tubes

near

col lapse

chamber .

con td .• . .

8/21/2019 BCRA 11-2-1984


T BLE

1 (continued)

White

Sc

a r

Ca ve

I ng l e

borough

Cave

Gaping

Gi l l

Vic to r i a

Cave

Cha p e l - I e

Dale

Clapham

I ng l e

borough

area

Clapham -

I ng l e

borough

area

Langcl i f fe

Scar ,

S e t t l e

250 6.0

259

3.2

396

11.3

440

0.2

73

~ 2

179

15

act ive

phrea t i c

upst ream

sec t ion , deep

vadose

passage

downstream,

anc ient h igh

l eve l sec t ions

f o s s i l phrea t i c

near

ent rance,

ac t ive ph rea t i c

upst ream) recent

entrenchment

accompanying

s t ream divers ion

several

f o s s i l

phrea t i c l eve l s

wel l

above

modern

phreas , little

vadose develop

ment

exc

e

pt

in


t runca ted

phrea t i c

?)

remanent

long c on t in u o us s t r e a m

w

ay

t o

sy

ph on s

w it

h one

ma j o r

t r i b u t

a r y , now

l a rge l y fo s s i l S l ee p

wa

l ke r

Se r ie s ) , a

nd l a r

ge

high - l e vel f oss il tu

nn

e l s

(Western F ront , Ba t t l e

f ie ld) a bove

s t rea

w a y,

s peleothems throu gh ou t

cave.

f loods occasional l y v ia

ent rance ,

resurgence

cave

for

water from

Gaping

Gi l l

system, speleothems mainly

in ent rance sec t ion

(Show

Cave) and h igher - l eve l

f o s s i l passages Gi an t · s

Hall) near s t ream divers ion .

many ent rances wi th v e r t i c a l

sh a f t s , a l l t r ibu ta ry

s t reams

s ink in sediments

,

or

deep

phreas on

enter ing

main

par t of

system

(water

resurges in

Ingleborough

Cave) , speleothems on

sediments

in l a rge chambers

Mud Hal l , Sta lagmi te

Chamber) and

in

a

nc ien t

tunne l s to eas t E a s t

Passage ,

Far

Eas t

Passage)

.

excavated

ent rance

and

s ide

loop, f lowstones

aga ins t

back

wal l , among bOUlders

in loop and on

cave

wallS ,

others removed from ent rance

c lay deposi t s during

excav a t ions .

Table

2

l i s t s the ana ly t ica l de ta i l s

of

the

182 age determinat ions

th a t were made upon

these

87

speleothems.

The

ages

are

also

disp layed

as

a bar

graph

in

Fig .

2; t h i s b e t t e r

i nd ica t es the con t inu i ty of

growth

between dated poin ts up

a

s t a l agmi te , e tc .

Two or more ana lyses were

made

on 42

of

the

speleothems.

In

33

of t hese , the

ages

decrease in the

di r ec t ion

of

growth, as

they should.

In

the

remaining

nine cases , the

measured

ages

e i t h e r over lap

with in

t h e i r

er ror l imi t s

(wi th in o r t he re waS

U

or

Th

contamination.

Data

of Table

2

show t ha t the 2 3 ~ h / 2 3 4 U dat ing method used

here

gives

re l i ab le re su l t s when appl ied to speleothems

t ha t

are

pure and impervious.

Below, we use

I ka to represent

1,000 years Before

Presen t .

Craven ages range from

as low as

1 ka to

grea te r

than 350

ka.

The ± l ~ e r r o r

l imi t s

general ly

increase

from

5

percent

for

young specimens up

to

15 percent

for

anc ient ones. The l imi t of

350

ka i s

regarded as

the maximum age a t

which the d i s t i nc t i on

between

a f i n i t e and

i n f in i t e age

can

be made with

conf idence .

D TING C VE DEVELOPMENT

Lancas te r Hole -

Ease

Gi l l

Caverns

( I ) Th1S system 1S over

100

m deep and 46 krn in

length .

Most o f the

length

cons i s t s

of

di s t r ibu ta ry

i n l e t s

from

disc re te

s inks

of

the

main

surface

s t ream,

Ease

G i l l . The

system

under l ies

Caster ton F e l l and

resurges a t

Leck Beck

Head (Fig.

1 but

te rmina tes in

a sump

almost

1 krn from t h i s spr ing . The main sec t ion conta ins a high

vadose

s t r e

a m passage below

a r e l i c t phrea t i c

tunnel .

Entry to t h i s sec t ion

is

bes t gained v i a the Lanca s t e r Hole

ent rance sha f t .

Two s i t e s yie lded the

most

i n t e r e s t i ng speleothems. The f i r s t was B i l l Tay lo r ' s Passage

( the

connection

between Lancas te r Hole

ent rance and

Fal l Po t ) ,

about

40 m above the

modern

stream. It conta ins much

silt

c lay and grave l s . The samples were

embedded

in these depos i t s ,

or

washed

out of

them, o r they lay

loose . They

f a l l in to

th ree d i s t i n c t

age

groupings: -

(1)

s talagmites

and f lowstones t h a t

grew a t

t imes during

the per iod

126-70

ka

and have

not

grown s ince . These

a l l

show ~ v i d e n e

of

water eros ion ( r e - so lu t ion) upon

t h e i r

su r faces .

Samples

77126 (126

- 106 ka) and 79124

(126

-

95

ka) appear to have

grown more o r l e s s

cont inuous ly

during

t h e i r measured

t ime

spans of

20,000

and

30,000

years r espec t ive ly . An eroded,

unconformable

overgrowth

on 79124 was dated a t

73

ka. It shows t ha t some eros ion occurred

in the

non-growth in te rva l

(h iatus) between

95

and

73

ka. 76135 was

a f lowstone boss

1

m

high t ha t was once completely bur ied by c l a s t i c

sediments .

It grew from

>

95 ka (a da te upon

the cent re ) to 86 ka ( top) . Sta lagmi te 76122 shown in Pla te

1 is

more compl icated . It grew

68

8/21/2019 BCRA 11-2-1984


TABLE 2 SP ELEOTHEM LOC

ATIONS,

OES

CRI

PT I ONS AND IS OTOP IC DNI A FOR

2

30

Th l

L3 4

U

AG E

DETERMINATIONS

FOR SAMPLES FROM CRAVEN CAV

ES

, NO

RTH.

?EST ENG

LAND

(a f t e r G3scoy ne e t al . 193Bb) .

Cave

"'hi

te

S

car

Cave

Ibbeth

Peri l

Cave

I

La ncaster

Hole - -

r.ase

Gil l Caverns

Spe

l e o

ther"

No.

76100

76102

76106A

761068

76108

76110

76111

76112 .

76121

76122

76124

76125

76126

76127

76128

76129

76130

76131

76133

76135

77120

79005

77121

77122

771238

77126

79003

79120

79121

79124

Descriptio

n

f

s , in s tr eamway

f s , Westll rn

Front

fs ,

Sleep-Walker

Passage

f s ,

near to

76106A

sq

,

Far

Streamwa

y

., fa l s e floo r

near to 7611

0

thin .. br

i

dge

sq,

B i l l

Tayl

o

r s

Pass.

sq, ne ar

to

76121

59,

ne ar

tp

76121

S9, near to 7612

1

sq, Stop Pot

fs , ~ t o p Pot

Easter Grotto

9q

near to

76128

sq, Stake

Pot

scr,

Stop

Pot

f5 ,

Eureka Junction

Large fs ho ss ,

B i l l

fiVlor's Pass

.

2 overlyinq .

samples:

A - lower,

t .

~ l ~ ~ ~ ~ d ~ i ; ; ~ : in

. ...

ov e r l i e s

771 208

. ., Brinqe

Hall

fs , B i l l Taylor's

Pa9s.

5g,

R il l

Taylor's

Pass

.

bos:s, entrance

shaft

s

a:: le

as

79

003

sq on f s , B i l l

Taylor's Pass .

5q

near

Craveyard

A.nalysis: u

ppm)

2) 4

U

2)OTh

23 0

T

I I

No. Lo cAtion

2) 8

U

232

T

I I 234

U

Aqe 10

ley)

E- l

hase

E-2

top

top

-1

top

-2 base

-1

-1

top

hase

-2

top

3 base

-1

-1

top

bulk

-2 top

-3

base

-1

hu lk

1 top

-2

hase

-1

-2

-1

base

top

base

-2 hase

-1

hase

- 4 top

-1 top

-2 h o l ~ e

-1

top

-2

ho'lse

-4 near base

-1

base

-2 top

-1

top

-2 base

-3 hase

-1

base

T-2

top

-1

base

-1 top

- 2 hase

1 .4

6 0

. 976

126

103. B8

0.946

0.06

1 . 096

0 .58 1.01B

36

0.61

0.995 21

0 .80

0.857

)7

1 .39

2.11

1 .17

1.201

1.082

1

.1

92

2 )

25

0 .

72

0 . 996

25

15.30 1. 067

0 .

31

0.947 >200

0.40 1 . 003 13

1.21 . 0.960 >200

2.42

1 .49

2.12

2 .

59

0 .

62

0 .

63

2 . 1

1 .17

13

.7

13.3

13.1

5 . 0

14.5

18 .3

2.7

3.1

1.8

2 . 7

2 .

77

1 .

90

17 . 1

4 .9

9 . 5

1 .

073 110

1.130

129

1.203

1.386

1. 229

1.330

1.628

1.518

54

37

13

24

105

66

0.719

>200

0.713

22

0.878 >200

0.911

>

200

0.848 >200

0.745

0.727

0.789

0.749

0 .

799

1.222

1 .

232

0.760

0.820

43

10

31

72

153

45

0.778 >200

1 upper r.l.irldle 0.97

1 .192

52

-2

top

A-l

hase

top

B-2 >a le

1.32

2

.7

1

1.90

1 .64

B-3

belor.l hiatus

0.43

B-4 ~ o v e

hi atus 0.42

B-S

near

t'?P

B 1 top

-3 b ~ e

-1

top

-1

t o p

-3

top

- 0 .5 7

0 .43

0 .2

2

0 . 2 3

-4 above hiatu s 0 . 5 1

-5 hela..> hiatus 0 59

-6 SAr.'Ie as -5 1 .1 8

-1

base

1 .04

b u l ~

1 .

32

1.240 >200

1 . 242

>200

1.161

124

1 . 417 >200

1.577 >200

1 . 577 11

1 .3 80 4

1 .473 >200

1 .425

1 .4 29

1.198

1. 3104

23

12

24

4 4

1.518

47

1

. 178 >200

1.373

89

1.284

20

1.565

75

-1 base 6.11

1.031

160

-2

top 3 .

93 1.152 >200

top

0 .21

1.117 62

C- 1 near base 0 .4 2 1 .

178

29

-1

top

0 .38

1 .

313

>

200

-3 middle

- 2 hase

-1 fs

hase

-2 s9 top

- 1 bas e

-5 top

-3

oute

r

-.,

. "

0

. 38

1.156

69

0 .44 0 .

993

178

0.83

1.622 103

1 .42

1 . 553 >200

1 .17 1.113

>20 0

1 . 05

0.43

1.131 >200

1.420

49

0.976

» 5 0

0

. 956 » 5 0

1.083

0 . 870

0 .90)

>350

2 8:n

2 5 6 ~ ~ ~

1 .0 )0 » 5 0

0.102

0.053

0.098

0.089

0 . 238

0 .

118

0.05 1

0 . 068

0.656

0.661

0.578

0.49

1

0.116

0.087

0 . 302

0.306

0.007

0 . 005

0 .

843

0.963

0.846

0.100

0 .

008

0.099

0.104

0 . 084

0 .049

0.080

0.054

0.036

0 .5 94

0.558

0.750

0.647

0.640

0.574

0.476

0 . 567

0.468

0.399

0.333

0

.4 1

8

0.389

0.423

0.736

l

6tO.

7

6

O ~ O

3

11

. 1 ±O .4

10 . ' to . S

29. 4t2

2

'3 .7t 1 . 3

5. 7

1

0 .6

7 . 6t O . 7

114

1

7

1141:7

91

1

5

71 :t

, 3

.3 :1.0

9.S±0.5

8

t

l

39 :2

O.StO .1

9 .7 0 .3

2 2 5 ~ ~ ~

>350 *

2 3 7 : ~ ~

,

1

.StO.S

1 . 2± 0 . 2

0 . 9

t

O. l

l

4tO 6

12.0tO.S

9.6: :O.3

5. 5

t

O.2

9 .0

t

O.3

6 .5

1

0 .

2

9 . 8

O. 5

95

t

4

8613

~ ~ 6

109±4

104±4

87

1

4

67

1

2

8715

6615

4 ] ± ]

5S

1

4

52 '2

S8

i

2

137:tS

0 .6 4 0

'

1041"3

0.52

5

0

. 280

0 .69

1

0 . 635

0 . 8 60

0 .

944

0 . 942

0.984

0.928

0.324

0

.2 7

8

0 . 699

0 . 699

0.604

26

t

5

106 ±4'

1 9 9 : g

2 5 7 ~ ~ ~

236+

20

-1 7;

3 1 3 ~ ~ :

2 8 9 ~ ~

4411

35t

126

1

6

6

t

6

95

1

5

8/21/2019 BCRA 11-2-1984


TABLE 2

cont inued

lng lehorouqh

Cave

Victor ia

Cave

e:<cavateti

samples

no in

Piqyard

T " I ,

S" ttl

e .

70

76140

76141

76142

76 143

76144

76145

77143

76151

7 6 1 ~ 2

76 , 53

76154

76,55

77150B

77 , 5,

77,59

77230

7723

77234

77236

71237

7 72388

79150

79151

79153

79,55

79,58

79000

7900

79002

79021

79023

79025

79026

. .2.. Giant 's Hall

aven -1

base

fs ,

Ciant s H a l l

aven -1

base

-2 top

0 .07

0 . , 0

1.270

1.462

1.341

. ,., Ciant's

Hall

aven

-1

below

hiatus 0 .04

,

.306

. .' Giant.5 Hall

5q

Show

Cave

5Q, Sho'" Cave

2 o

ve r ly ing . .

sam

ples

-2

-3

1

1

-2

C l

A I

base 0 .04 .

287

above

hiatus

0 .10

1 . , 32

hase

0 .

07

1 . 26 7

base

0 .37

0.952

top

0.41

, .

078

middle

0 . 95 0.784

hase

0.07

1.480

A

•

upper. B = lo er

A-2

top

0 .

06

0.12

0

.1

4

1.

392

. 92

, . 343

1.337

Gia.nt's Hall aven

f s , from

block

pi le

in loop

{s,

near to

76151

s c,

on hlock pi

Ie

{s,

nE:ar

to 76151

fs veneer

on

a l l ,

-

in t

uhe

B-1 base

R-3 mi ddle

B

-2

top

0.11

-

ha s e

0 .

38

0.974

-,

ha se

0 .

38

1 . 006

-,

<op

0

.1

8 1.301

1

t o p

0 .

52

, .

049

1

top

0

.6 ,

, . 0

28

fs l

ayer-

s in laminated - 1

- clays, ne ar enlrance

hu

lk

0 .39

, .

019

ov e

r lying

. .

1\-1

59

In h.1se

0.36

1 . ,52

s al'\ples ,

- hase, B z :':liddle,

1.-2 bas e

0 .

50 0.984

C -

Top

. Hiatus

near

base

of

C.

B-1 base

0 .43 , . 037

In loop.

B-2

top

0.45

. 0 5 9

C 4 belOlJ hiatus

0

.41

, . 057

C 3 above hiatus 0 .4 6

1 .08

C 5

as C-3 0.45

1 . \ 1 2

6

0

19

4

8

26

22

41

72

24

46

53

81

9

59

26

47

, 30

,28

102

118

C-l

top

0

.4

6

.

08

56

C-2 as

C-1 0 .4 6

1 .020 >200

. , cO;:J

t

ains -1 base

hiatu

ses

, on

"'11

in loop top

f s / f l 1 l

lavers

,

on 1\

-1 base

- hi'l.dt wall

A ..

basal layer . F- l hase

H ...

t

op

ll yer.

H-l bulk

in loop

-1

top

.'

in loop - 1 t o p

f s , overly inq clays -1 hulk

- in

e n

trance

near

to

77236 -1

t op

i s ,

near

to 77

236, -1 middle

-

unne r l i e s

c lays

0

. 39

1. 1 04

0 .32 1 . 4 3

1 .97 1 .03 9

0 . 35 1 .138

0.13 0.872

0 .50 0.982

0:38 0 .

94

7

0.65 0.915

0 .58 , . 00,

1 . 00 1.052

25

21

23

42

12

31

88

43

fs,

in l

oop,

near

- 77151

-4 base

-5 top

0

. 53

0 .46

1.055

>200

1.003 >200

same as 77151 , hut

s i nq l e hloc);'

cut

from

12

boss

f s ,

in loop

..'

near

17230

., over l i es 791S 1

f s , over lying rhino

tooth

fs ,

overlying rhino

jaw bone

fs , coating red deer

antler

fs ,

overlying

rhino

teeth

f s , over ly

in

g giant

dee[" teeth

_1

- 3

1

above

hiatus

0 .4 9

he 10 00 hiatus 0 .50

t-a

se

0 . 72

top

0.49

1.087

1.061

1.047

, . 042

-,

base 1 .8 6 0 . 999

1

base

0 .54

, .076

-3 as-l

-2 top

0 .59

0 .46

-1 ad j . to

tooth

0 .62

-2 near

tooth

0 .63

-1 a:ij .t.o jaw 0

.5

0

- 2 near jaw

0.40

- 3

a s - 2

1

hulk

0 .43

0 .50

-1 near teeth 0.43

, .

072

1 . 0 43

1 .0 00

1 .0 ,9

, . ,00

1 .033

1.022

, . 0 , 2

1.057

-1 near teeth 0 . 50 0 . 99 4

part of larqe

f s

hlock - 1 at

hone

n .RA 1

.1 20

conta inlng rh i no level

ar.c1

hippo oones

on

lower

s ide

-:2 t o p

n .4 3

- 3 near to 0.58

bo

ne Ipvel

1.048

1.037

66

84

47

52

26

80

46

123

44

20

20

,52

34

, 6

3,

7

111

84

47

fs ove r l

ying

r h i

no

t e e th

-,

too

?)

0.

46 1 .

022 >200

0.784

0 . 668

0

.475

0.798

0 6 2 ~

0.728

0 .

85

7

0 .

100

0.185

o. 03

0.621

0 . 617

0 . 702

0.677

0 . 658

0 . 95 4

0 .

869

0.162

0

. 818

68

t

S

, 5 6 : ~ ~

19

1

' 3 6 : ~ ~ •

8 6 ~ ~ ~

11 .S: :l

.2

22

.

21; ,

l ' . 9

i

O.6

9 8 ~ ~ ~

•

98 :10

12 5 8

11S±8

110±1O •

>350

19

.

0± .

6

: ~ ~

, .

009

>

350

, .1 04

0.875

0.925

0 .

935

0.927 ·

0 .

9 4

0.836

0 .

930

0

.8 4

6

0

.8 3

1

0 .9

69

0.627

,. 03

0 .

933

0 .

209

0.889

0 .

848

1 ., 56

0 .

968

1 .

006

0.888

0.815

0 .9 2 2

0.926

0 . 962

0.800

1.087

0.824

0 . 830

0.80 4

0 . 6 0

0.672

0 .

623

0 . 69

0 . 714

0 .7 02

0.690

0.678

0.4A4

0.654

0.672

0 .

668

>

350

2 0 5 : ~ :

2 8 7 : ~ ~

28,

2 6 5 : ~ ~

2 5 0 : ~ ~

1 8 8 ~ ~

2 S 5 : ~ ~

1

5 ~ ~

'91±9

3 0 7 : ~

l 04±7

>350 •

2 S 3 : ~ ~

25 . 5 3 . 6

2 4 3 : ~ ~

l

eached

>

350

>3

50

' S3±,0

2 6 3 : : ~

171

>350

1

81

1e5± 0

173±9

102 ±

11

•

120±7

l 0 4±6

26±9

135 :8

131 ig

114iS

120±6

8/21/2019 BCRA 11-2-1984


TABLE 2 Con t i n

ued

Lo

s t

John s

Cave

Gavel Pot

Gaping

Gi 11

7

6160

76161

76164

76165

77162

76190

76191

76192

,

76201

76202

76206

76207

76208

76209

76210

76211

77209

76212

76215

76216

77200

77201

77205

fs , Lyle Cavern

high l evel

sg,

Lyle

Cavern

high level

fs ,

Main Drain

.; .,

Main Drain

same as

76165,

large sect ion

- 2

-3

1

1

- 2

-3

- I

1

-4

base (1)

t op

base

top

near

top

base

pieces

top

near top

-6 .

near

top

0.20

0.18

0.25

3.84

4.31

5.68

9.35

6.23

7.16

7.29

-9 upper middle

8.85

-8 middle

7.00

(porous)

-10 upper middle 8.43

sg, Glasfurd s

Passage

sg, Glasfurd s

Passage

sg, near to

76191

sg , Stalagmi te

Chamber

fs ,

l ~ u d Hall

fs

veneer ns ler s

- Upper

Pass.

9g , Nevada

Pass . ,

.

Far

Country

sq,

S ta laqmi

te

Chamber

-7

-3

1

-2

-3

1

-3

-4

-2

1

-3

base

base

base

top

base

base

near base

near

top

near hase

base

base

-2

hase

1

hulk

1 base

-2 top

1 top

-T top

-3

sq, overlying varves,

1

-

Sand Cavern

base

base

sq, Old East Pass. 1

-2

fs on

wall ,

Old

-1

- East Pass.

same as

76211

f s ,

Old East Pass .

sc, on

f i l l ,

West

Chamber

sq, Old East Pass.

-2

-2

-3

1

1

fs , llorth Craven Pass.

1

-2

f s ,

Old East

Pass.

1

-2

sq, Far East

Pass.

1

-2

base

top

hulk

top

base

top

bulk

base

top

(1 )

base

1)

hulk

bulk

base

top

9.33

7.21

0.57

0.50

0.37

0.44

0.37

0.22

0.30

2.07

1.89

0.46

1.81

0.89

0.30

0.42

0.91

0.74

9.38

1.39

2.38

0.39

0.25

2.

10

0.90

3.92

8.93

0.95

1.94

1.47

1.44

1.85

1.84

16

15

0.717

0.702

1.2 95

1.283

1.273 7 1 06

1.003

178

0.598

0.929 >200

0.945

>200

0.938

III

0.944 127

0.898 >200

0.941

>200

0.914

85

0.862 45

0.927 >200

0.947

0.916

1.398

1.368

1.409

1.238

1.235

1

.204

1.326

1.279

1.337

1.056

1.181

1.290

1.233

1.512

1.580

1.542

1.120

1.370

1.200

1.164

1.185

1

.218

1.274

0.972

1.144

1.296

1.239

1.337

1.351

1.842

1.858

37

92

5

5

27

65

29

13

28

16

16

40

48

76

27

3

8

6

6

99

122

28 ,

20

4

7

3

6

181

0.612

0.620

0.649

0.568

0.597

0.584

0.581

0.668

0.628

0.638

0.638

0

.127

0.046

0.089

0.114

0.095

0.082

0.085

0.068

0.063

1.074

0.333

0.672

0.735

0.017

0.007

0.031

0.008

0.303

0.297

0.938

0.995

0.126

0.107

0.012

77210A sg, Far

East

Pass.

1 top 0.44 1.927

69

15

55

95

29

12

0.012

0.994

1.032

0.091

0.09S

0.358

0.379

0.097

Newby Hoss Cave

76220

fs , near

entrance

1 top (1)

1.34 1.

257

Kingsdale

Haster Cave

77240

77241

77242

77243

fs ,

on roof arch,

- Roof

Tunnel

sc, Roof

Tunnel

fs , below

aven,

Roof

Tunnel

fs , Roof Tunnel

• low U or

Th yields

(5 to 1 0 ) ;

sc s t a l ac t i t e )

-2

bulk 0.20

1

below

hiatus

0.41

1

bulk 1.55

1 base (1)

1 .17

sg

=

stal;ogr.rite) in si tu

or

growth posit ion is known, i f underl ined.

fs

- flowstone )

1.145

1.123

1.015

1.053

82

83

35

74

73

1.065

0.989

0.804

0.941

0.891

12 8± 2

, 3 ~ ~ ~ •

1

2

1

t

5 5

99±4

1 5

t

7

106±4

, , 6± ,2

92±4

101±3

96

t

3

96±3

126±5

109±5

112

±3

113±5

14.7

t

O.6

5. 1

t

O.6

10.1

t

O.6

13.1±1.4

10.7±0

. 5

9.3

t

O.9

9.6±0.4

7.6±0.4

7 .0±0.3

>350

44±

114±8

135+

16

-14

1. 9

t

O.2

0.8±0.2

3 .4±0.3

0.8±0.1

39±2

38±1

253+

30

-24

3 1 9 ~ ~ 3

14.6

t

O.7

12.2±0.4

1.4±0.1

1.3±0.1

2 8 9 : ~ g

>350

10.3

i

O.3

10.8±0.4

46±1

50±1

11.0±0.6

>350

1 6 8 ~ n

3 0 0 ~ ~ ~ 0

230+

23

-19

71

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8/21/2019 BCRA 11-2-1984


between 91

and

71 ka but d i sp lays th ree

in te rna l breaks

in deposi t ion . These are marked

by

th in

layers

of

d e t r i t u s t h a t suggest

possib le

f loods .

2)

s talagmites aged

between 44

and

35 ka. These show

no

evidence

of

r e - so lu t ion . 79121

i s a sec

t io

n, 50 cm

deep,

cut from a t h i ck

stalagmite

in the excavated rubb le of the Passage.

It

grew from 44

to

35 ka. Severa l

th in d e t r i t a l l ayers

wi th in

it

suggest f lood e f fec t s but ,

as

noted ,

there

i s no so lu t ion damage; so , it appears

t ha t

the floods were

minor .

3) recent (pos t -g lac ia l ) depos i t s t ha t are f resh.

76124

waS a disp laced

s talagmite

t ha t

began

growing

13.3

ka

an age

f r

om a contaminated specimen)

or

9.8 ka.

The second

s i t e

was

Colonnade

Passage

and Bridge Hal l where

some

r ecen t ly

col lapsed

f lowstones

and

others

still

in

the

growth

posi t ion

were

taken.

The

s i t e

i s

about

55

m

above

the modern

s t ream.

Samples from Colonnade Passage include the

in te r es t ing sequence

shown in Pla te 2.

Three f lowstone

shee t s

are separa ted by two

layers of clay .

The upper

sheets a lso

have

growth h ia tu ses with in them.

The

basal

shee t , 77120A, perhaps began to grow

about

140 ka but

t h i s

basal age

may be

too

grea t because of suspected leach ing e f f e c t s . Once begun, the

sheet

grew

con t inuously wi thou t

evidence of

eros ion or other f lood damage unt i l 109 ka.

Layers of

mud

were

then l a i d

upon

it Growth began again as a

separa t e

shee t , 77120

B,

around 104

ka.

It

con t inued u n t i l about

87 ka.

The

per iod ,

87-67

ka,

is represented by a h ia tu s in

growth

but wi th no s ign i f i can t f lood damage o r

deposi t ion .

More mud

accumulated

a t some t ime s)

between 66 and 54 ka when the top sheet 79005) began to grow. This

shows

a t l e a s t four

d e t r i t a l hor izons , probably

represent ing

more f loods , before a l l growth f i n a l l y ceased a t

th i s place

about

43 ka.

The Bridge Hal l f lowstone 77121) was a complete sec t ion

f a l l e n

from a f a l se f loo r tha t

i s now 10 m

above

the modern f loor

of

de t r i tus . It f i r s t grew around 110

ka;

there

was

little o r

no depos i t ion

be tween- lOO

ka and

58

ka, and then qui te rap id growth u n t i l

52

ka.

Samples 79003 and 79120 were taken from a

col lapsing

boss in Lancas te r Hole ent rance

sha f t ,

c lose

to

the

Bridge

Hal l

f lowstone

but

a t

higher

e leva t ion .

The

base

of the

boss

gave

a date of -

290

ka, one of the o ldes t in t h i s system. The top age i s ~ 2 2 ka. Ages of 238

base) to 225

ka top)

were

measured on

a loose block of f lowstone

close to the top of

Stop

Pot

ladder .

All

other

speleothems taken from

the

Caverns

are

pos t -g lac ia l

in age

. These include

detached

s talagmites

from Eas te r Grot to , Eas t Montagu Passage and Eureka

Junct ion

and

one

in

the growth pos i t ion on f a l l e n blocks

near

Stop

Pot . Thei r basal

ages

range

from

12 to

9

ka.

There

i s an unusual ly large

var ia t ion

in the concent ra t ion of uranium measured in

d i f f e r e n t speleothems

in

these Caverns. It ranges

from

0.21 to 17.1 ppm.

The

r a t i o of

the

two U i so topes , 234u/23Bu , a t the

t ime of i n i t i a l

depos i t ion var i es from 0 .74 to 1.74 , which

i s a l so

a wide

range

for one

smal l l oca l i ty . Ancient and

recent

samples

in

the neighbourhood

of

Eas te r Grot to ,

Eureka

Junct ion

and

Stop Pot a l l have

r a t i o s

below 0.82 .

I n i t i a l r a t i o s

outs ide

of

it are a l l higher than 1.0 .

e

can

f ind no

unusual

geological ,

hydrologica l or

topographical f ea tu res to

account

for these pa t te rns ; they can be placed in the whole new

c las s

of

in te r es t ing problems being r a i sed by

i so topic

s tud ies of kar s t waters and

t h e i r

deposi t s .

e ar r ive a t the following general conclus ions for Lancas te r Hole-Easegi l l C averns :

a) few speleothems are older than about 140 ka.

This i s probably

because

l a rge

eros ion or

i n f i l l i n g even ts have des t royed or bur ied most

older

deposi t s .

b)

the

ent rance

s ha f t a t

Lancas te r

Hole waS

a t

l e a s t 20 m deep

and

vadose a t 300 ka. It i s

probably

much o lder .

c) the major h igh - l eve l t runk passages such

as

t ha t a t Stop Pot were

drained by

240 ka. One

o r more

floods

or

fill ing events destroyed speleothems in

them

a t

t imes

during the per iod ,

200-140 ka.

d)

t he re

waS

vigorous

speleothem growth over wide areaS of

the

cave during

the l a s t

i n t e r

glac ia l , which extended from 140 ka to 85 ka. It i s l i k e l y t h a t the Colonnade s began to

grow

then .

There

i s good

evidence

of a br ie f per iod of no growth

around

105 ka.

After

85 ka

some

samples ceased a l l growth,

o ther s were eroded by the dr ip

waters t h a t

had

previous ly

depos i ted them and some con t inued to grow spo rad ica l ly but of ten showing flood mud

l ayer s .

These condi t ions continued to about 38

ka

and, t en ta t ive ly , can be t aken to

represent

a

sequence

of co ld phases and

merely

co o l ( in te r s t ad ia l ) phases .

e)

a t

some t ime between 65 and 38

ka B i l l Tay lo r s

Passage and

a l l

below it

were

f looded

( returned

to phrea t ic condi t ions)

for

a lon g per iod .

This

i s

ind icated

y widespread re

so lu t ion of speleothems. Such r e - so lu t ion i s not apparen t in

Bridge

Hal l

and

COlon

n a des

Passage

depos i t s

which

are

a t

higher

e leva t ion .

f) there waS

major

f looding with eros ion or

re-working

of depos i t s a t

some t ime during

the

per iod , 35-12 ka.

This

can

be

considered

to

be

an

e f f e c t of

the

Devensian Last)

Glaciat ion .

Gavel Pot .

Gavel

Pot i s

one

of

severa l

caves

on

Leck Fe l l tha t are gene t ica l ly r e la ted and dra in

to

a common resurgence,

Leck

Beck Head. The Pot

forms

the lower

par t

of the Short Drop Cave

drainage route and conta ins

an

ac t ive

vadose

streamway

which drops

to a

sump

v ia severa l

ver t i ca l pi tches .

Our dates are l imi ted to three

samples

from Glas fu rd s Passage,

a wel l -decora ted ,

r e l i c t

phrea t i c tube above the p i t ches and about

75

m above resurgence

l eve l .

All t h ree are of

pos t -g lac ia l age <:13

ka) .

This was su rp r i s ing

because

76190 was a l a rge s t a l agmi te , 89 cm

long,

t ha t

had

been topp led

and par t ly

bur ied

by

boulders

t ha t

were

cemented by ca l c i t e .

The

s talagmite

was

expected to be older . It seems t ha t t he re has

been

a l o t more eros iona l and

deposi t ional

a c t i v i t y in the Passage during pos t - g l a c i a l t imes than i t s

abandoned

pos i t ion and

r e l i c t

appearance

would sugges t .

S ta lagmi te 76190 yie lded the f a s t e s t speleothem growth

r a te

amongst

our

Craven samples.

It was lengthening a t a mean ra t e of 18 cm,

and gaining

5 .4 kg of

ca l c i t e ,

per

1,000

years .

75

8/21/2019 BCRA 11-2-1984


Lost

Jo h n s System

This cave,

also

on

Leck

Fe l l ,

has a complex s e r i e s of phreat ic

rift and

act ive

vadose

canyon

passages

in i t s upper l eve l s . These

en te

r a high meandering

streamway ( the

Main

Drain)

about 140 m below entrance l ev e l . Now

known as

the Leck Fel l Master Cave

t h i s

passage or ig ina tes upstream a t Lyle Cavern, close to the

sur face

i n l e t from Lost Pot and

ends in a sump 1 kI

from

the Leck Beck Head

resurgence,

a f t e r

co l lec t ing

i n l e t streams from

two other

Leck

Fe l l caves .

Three

samples t h a t

appeared

to be old were co l l ec t ed from the lower reaches

of

the

system. All grew dur ing

the

l a s t i n t e r g l ac i a l . 76160 waS a flowstone block

in

a boulder

choke

a t

the end of the Lyle Cavern

High

Level

Ser ies .

It grew f rom

128

to 123 ka and

conta ined d e t r i t a l

l ayer s

t ha t suggest occasional f looding. Another

broken

f lows tone

76164)

was

embedded

in

mud

in

a

bedding

plane

in the

Main

Dra in ,

a

shor t

di s t ance

a

bove

Groundsheet

Junct ion . It grew from 106 to 99 ka and conta ins a prominent growth

hia tus

dated on

each

s ide a t

106.3

and

104.5 ka.

It seems l i ke ly tha t th i s is t he 105 ka break

in

depos i t ion no t i ced

in some

Lancaster -Ease Gi l l

samples a

l though

the cause

of

the

break remains

con jec tu ra l .

Samples

76165 and 77162 were co l l ec t ed nearby, from a f lowstone

preserved

in the growth

pos i t ion and

about

2.5 m above the

modern

stream . It appears

to

have

grown from

113 to 92 ka;

there i s no c l ea r break of depos i t ion

in

the

middle,

where a 105 ka h ia tu s would be expected.

However, the c a l c i t e is very porous there , which may be concea l ing

it

This deposi t c l ea r l y

shows

t ha t the

Main

Drain waS vadose and c lose

to

i t s modern dimensions 113,000

years

ago.

The maximum mean r a t e of

channel entrenchment

s ince then

cannot

be more than 2.2

cm/ka.

Kingsda le M aster

Cave

This cave

i s the main drainage route for a l l systems on the west

Kingsda le

slopes and

from some

East

Kin

gsda le

caves.

The ca

ve i s

entered

a

few

metres

above

v a l l ey f loor level via

a

f oss i l p h r ea t i c

tube

known

as

the

R

oof

Tunnel .

This

tube

cont inues

to a 5 m drop

in to

the

Master

Cave, c lose

to the sump

of

the

main s tream.

A

high,

wide, vadose canyon, with

roof

tube ,

cont inues upstream

to

severa l

low

in le t s

from

feeder

caves

fu r ther

up-va l l ey .

Our sampling was l imi ted to four specimens from the

Roof

Tunnel. Two were in s i t u

f lows tone/ s ta lac t i t e depos i t s on upper walls and the other s were detached f ragments .

Sample

77240 gave an ag

e

of 324 ka, but wi th l a rge e r ro r l imi t s due to low

U

concent ra t ions up to

t

100 ka) . It was in s i t u and

close

to the

Master

Cave.

Dr.

R

S.

Harmon (personal

communi

ca t io n from Dr. A. C. Waltham, and reported in Atkinson e t aI

1978)

obta ined an age

of

>400

ka

for

a sample

taken near it

Both had suf fered re -so lu t ion by

waters

flowing

up the Tunnel .

The

youngest

sample taken

77241)

was

also

in s i t u and

displayed s imi la r re -so lu t ion .

It was 168

ka

in

age.

The Roof

Tunnel

r i se s

to about

15

m above

the modern water

t ab le . This

r e su l t shows it

to be

a

su r p r i s in g ly old fea

tu re .

It was ce r t an ly drained and inac t ive before 168 ka and

most

probably

before 320 ka or

even

400 ka. However, it

has been

r eac t iva ted by waters

flowing

up and out of it

in to

Kingsdale , di sso lv ing

f lowstone

in the process.

There have been one

or more

such periods of reac t iva t ion

s ince 168

ka.

Ibbeth Per i l Cave I

This , the most nor ther ly of the

caves

inves t iga ted , i s a cave formed a t or below

val ley

f loor leve l

.

It i s

f r equen t ly

f looded by the River

Dee

and conta ins few f u l ly

r e l i c t sec t ions .

Three

samples

were

taken

from

f lowstones over

l

ying s tream

depos i t s

t h a t l a rge ly

f i l l e d

a s ide

passage. All are

p o s t -g l ac i a l

in age

but began growing

perhaps as

much

as

13,000

years

ago a l though r ep l i c ate

analyses

of 76111

suggest

t h i s

speleothem has suf fered some

a l t e r a t ion) .

The

sediments

beneath them a re poss ib ly of

f luv io -g lac ia l o r ig in . Those

not cemented

by

ca

l c i t e

have been eroded by

f looding

s ince 6 ka.

It seems t ha t the cave must

have

a t t a ined

very

much i t s

presen t

s i ze

and

to have been

dra ined

before t he

Late

Devensian Glacia t ion .

White Scar Cave.

This resurgence cave

i s

the

major

drainage rou te fo r the western s lopes

of

Ingleborough.

The cave i s en te red

a t the

base of the

Great

Scar l imestone and i s

a

show

cave in

i t s lower

reaches.

Large r e l i c t

tunnels ( the Western Front

and Bat t l e f i e ld

ser ies )

over l i e

the main

vadose streamway about 2 km from the

en t rance . Fur the r

upstream, beyond the Sleepwalker Ser i e s

(a smal l e r

f oss i l

netw ork) the streamway becomes a succession of sumps which l i e close to

sur face

i n l e t s .

Sampling was l a r g e ly l imi ted to broken and displaced f lowstones . 76100 was

a

f lowstone

boulder

found in the

s tream

channel

j us t

below the

Pu l p i t . All

par t s

of it are

older

than

35 0

.

ka.

It

probably

grew

in

the

Western

Front ,

20

m

above

the

modern

s tream

and

f e l l

v i a

the

Pulp i t co l lapse

area . 76102

was a smal ler fragment

co l l ec t ed near

the end

of the

Western

Front .

It

confirms t h a t t h i s

area

was

drained

before

350 ka.

76106B i s a r i ch l y complex

fragment

co l l ec t ed from boulders

in

the Yard, a t t he

beg

inn ing

o f

Sleepwalker Ser ies .

It

conta ins

a t

l ea s t four

c lear

breaks of

growth, each

of

which was

succeeded

by c a l c i t e

of

a di f f e r en t

colour

from t ha t below (Pla te 3 ) . All of the sample i s

beyond the dat ing l imi t

so

the

ages

of these breaks

cannot be measured.

However, they do show

t h a t

the

same s o r t of s ta r t - s top growth

tha t

we have measured elsewhere dur ing the l a s t 140,000

year s , was occurr ing here more than

350,000

years ago.

Only the flowstone

boulder

in the

modern

s tream showed evidence

of

r e- so lu t ion by flowing

water s . It appears t h a t

the

high l eve l

passages ,

Western F

ron t

and Sleepwalker Ser i e s , were

drained before 350

ka

probably,

long

before)

and

they have not

been

s ign i f i c an t ly f looded

s ince

t ha t date . Atkinson e t a l 1978) obta ined

an

age

of

225

t

60

ka

for a s ta lagmi te growing

in

the

streamway. This

underscores

the grea t

an t iq u i ty

of

t he

vadose entrenchment

t ha t

comprises the modern t o u r i s t

cave.

76

8/21/2019 BCRA 11-2-1984


Gaping G i l l .

This system, which d iver s have r ecen t ly connected

Ingleborough

Cave, probably

the

bes t known cave

in Br i ta in . Entered

by

a 110 m

ver t1ca l

drop, the

s t ream 1S

l o s t

immediately in to grave ls , and is not seen

f lowing

again u n t i l i t s resurgence in Terminal

Lake a t the

end

of Ingleborough

Cave.

Severa l

r e l i c t

l ~ v e l s of cave

development can

seen in Gap ing Gi

ll

many of which are

formed

by o ther 1nle t s to

the

system 1ntersec t1ng

f au l t

zones or

r e l a t i v e ly

impervious beds (e .g . the

Porcel lanous

Band).

A

t o t a

l of 16

samples

were

col lec ted from many di f fe ren t pa r t s

of the

cave. Half of

them proved to be pos t -g lac ia l

in

age. This confirms the impress ion

of

o ther s who have

s tud ied the

system,

t h a t

the re waS

widespread

erosion

and/or

deposi t ion

a t

t imes

during

the

l a s t

g l a c i a t i on

.

This des t royed o r

bur ied

most ea r l i e r speleothem

decorat ion .

Two samples

were older than

350 ka.

76202

was a flowstone boulder

found

in Mud Hal l .

77200 was flowstone on a

f a l l e n

block

in

the aven of North

Craven

Passage.

I t s growth

ended

N29 ± 22) ka. 76211 and 77209 are

pieces

of flowstone veneer

found

on t he

wal l

r espec t

ively

near

t o , and beneath ,

the

prominent cemented

cobble

fa l se f loor in Old Eas t Passage

t ha t i s

shown

in Pla te 4 (a ) . They r ~

ka in age,

and scal loped by l a t e r f loods.

Col lec t ive ly , these samples show t ha t high- leve l f o s s i l tunnels such

as

t he Old East

and Far Eas t passages were vadose by 300 ka and probably

before

350 ka. After 300 ka, Old

East Passage f i l l e d

a t

l e a s t

to

the

l eve l

of the fa l se

f loor ,

was s t ab le

for

a whi le ,

then

scoured o w ~ to i t s present debr is

f loor .

Sample 76220

i s a d i sp laced

f lowstone col lec ted by R. R. Glover

in the ent rance passages

of

Newby Moss Cave, almost

1 km southwest of Gaping

G i l l sh a f t .

It too ,

is. .v350

ka and

so

i nd i c a t

es the genera l an t iqu i ty of higher

l eve l caves

on t h i s f l ank of Ingleborough. It i s

a lso very c lo se to

the

con tac t

between

the

Great Scar l imestone and the Yoredale

Ser ies ,

showing

t h a t

the r a t e of r ecess ion of

the

Yoredale

caprock

has

been

very

slow

in t h i s

p a r t i c u l a r area

.

Only one

of

the

Gaping

Gi l l

samples

was

of

l a s t

i n t e r g l a c i a l

age.

76207 was

a

detached,

eroded s t a l agmi te re s t ing

on

clays in Nevada Passage, Far

Country.

It

t e s t i f i e s , f i r s t ,

to

vadose condi t ions

dur ing

the l a s t i n t e r g l ac i a l ,

and

then to powerful, dis rupt ive floodS in

passages t h a t are backwaters today .

Three samples from

d i f f e r e n t

passages

show

t ha t t he re

waS

qui te widespread growth (some

of

it rap id)

between

50 and 35 ka

in

Gaping G i l l , as t he re

was in Lancas ter -Ease

G i l l .

The

fa l se

f loor

in

Hens le r ' s Upper

Passage waS being

cemented about 44,000

years

ago.

Most of

the

under ly ing

sediment

has been

eroded

away s ince then

-

Some

of

the most s t r i k i n g

deposi t s

in Gaping Gi l l are

the varved clays

th a t

are

exposed

in an eros iona l

sec t ion

in

Sand Cavern

(P la t e 4(b) ) . They

ind ica te

a t l ea s t one comparat ively

r ecen t per iod

when the cave was underneath

or

adjo in ing

a

melting glac ie r .

A

smal l s t a l agmi te

growing

on top of them was dated . Unfor tunately , it i s very young indeed (800 yea rs a t i t s

base) , so t h a t it

does

not help to determine whether the

varves

are Late

Devensian

or

older .

Ingleborough Cave.

The lower, ent rance

sec t ion

of t h i s cave i s a

show cave.

The

cave

and i t s cont inuat ion

as fa r as Giant · s

Hal l

are

l a r ge l y

f o s s i l

now and

only

t ake

water in severe

f loods.

In

normal

flow, low wet passages beyond Giant ' s Hal l

dra in via

Beck Head Cave.

Most

samples

here

were

flowstones

(broken

or in

s i t u )

from

the

Giant ' s Hal l

aven. The

ma

j o r i t y have unusual ly low

U concentrat ions

plus

considerable

d e t r i t a l thorium (probably from

f requent

floods)

so

t h a t they cannot be dated

with

great accuracy . However,

77143

conta ined

more uranium and

ne g l i g i b l e

d e t r i t a l

con taminat ion .

It yielded a

se r i e s

of

r e l i a b l e

ages

between

125 and 98 ka. These tend to confirm

the

ages obta ined

on

the low

U

specimens. They

belong

to the

l a s t

i n t e r g l ac i a l .

These flowstones

ranged

from 3 to

13

m above the modern

drought

water t ab le in the cave;

thus , it was vadose to wi th in

3 m or

l e ss

of the

modern water l ine

120,000

years ago. High

l eve l chambers and

phrea t ic r i f t s

such as

Giant ' s

Hal l ,

Second

Gothic Arch and Upper Inaugura t ion

Ser ies must be much older than

t h i s .

Re-rout ing of

Gaping G i l l

water

from Cel la r

Gal lery and the

show

cave, to the

modern

o u t l e t

a t

Beck Head Cave must

have been

wel l es tab l i shed by 125 ka

because

the re

i s

ne g l i g i b l e

f lood

damage to the o l de s t

f lowstones.

Older , t runca ted , o u t l e t

tubes

near

the

beck head ,

such as Foxholes,

are

probab l

y a l o t o lder

than 200

ka.

Thus,

the area

about Ingleborough

seems

to

have

looked much t he same

125,000

o r

200,000

years ago as it

does

tOday

-

but , then

you

might

have met

a

hippopotamus

on your path

-

read

on

Vic tor ia

Cave.

This i s probably one

of

the oldes t caves in Craven. It l i e s near the upthrust southern

l imi t of the

l ime

s tone

between

the North

and

south

Craven

Faul t s . About 140 years ago the cave

ent rance waS a

smal l opening

i n Langc l i f f e Scar . About 1840 A.D.

excavat ion began,

reveal ing

evidence of

Romano-Bri t ish

and Upper Pa laeo l i th i c occupat ion.

These

f inds over lay laminated

clays and bone beds contain ing

remains

of hippopotamus,

hyaena,

rh inoceros ,

deer and l i on

(Tiddeman, 1873).

Fig . 3a shows the sequence of deb r i s f i l l S

as

Tiddeman drew them,

when

he excavated more

than 100 years

ago.

Fig . 3b shows the s t r a t i f i ca t i o n t h a t

we

could recogn ise

when

sampling

from the debr is remnants in the f loor

of the en t rance

passage in

1977.

For tuna te ly ,

many

of

our

samples are flowstones which, though

bur ied ,

remained in t h e i r growth pos i t ions .

Seven

in s i t u

f lowstones (p lus one loose

block) are

o lder than

350 ka and demonstrate

t h a t

much

of Tiddeman's " lower laminated

clays

are a l so of t h i s

grea t

age.

Some

of these f low

s tones

contain ' no growth'

hia tuses

t h a t

may

r ep resen t long t ime in te rValS. Even t h e i r

youngest

par t s are out

of

range

of

the

2 3 ~ h 2 3 4 u dat ing

methods. e

have

made some chemical assumptions

77

8/21/2019 BCRA 11-2-1984


.: ;

. . .

angular limestone talus

moraine drift (rounded boulders

including

Silurian erratics)

Romano-Celt i

upper cave earth layer

laminated clays

(upper)

lower cave earth

B E D R O C K

o

I

metres

10

I

.. ..

bone bed

(lower)

ye ow -brown

j

:: = : -7-

. . .

. . .7 . .

. .

~ ~ ~

. .

present

cave floor

level

---roof

fall block

yellow-brown

laminated

layS

stalagmite

co ting

Figure

3

a)Diagrammatic

sec t ion of Vic to r ia

Cave

showing

or ig ina l

sediment - cave

ear th sequence,

as descr ibed by Tiddeman

(1873) with

amendments by T_ Lord and A. King pers . COmID

1979) .

b)Sketch

diagram of loca t ion o f

in

s i t u

f lowstones

in

f loor

sediments

of

V ic to r i a Cave

ent rance

passage

(view

looking

i n t o

cave) .

78

8/21/2019 BCRA 11-2-1984


I

D

P

a

e

5

7

9

5

/

9

2

2

L

u

n

s

o

o

w

o

f

a

o

o

w

s

o

b

o

7

f

o

m

V

i

c

o

a

C

s

h

w

i

n

2

T

2

u

a

n

u

n

a

d

e

m

i

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m

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7

N

o

e

t

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p

o

m

i

n

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i

e

e

n

n

a

s

h

p

u

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o

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8/21/2019 BCRA 11-2-1984


and

resor ted

to s t a t i s t i c a l methods using 234u/238u r a t i o s

of

the samples to suggest t ha t

much

of the

flowstone

was

growing before

500

ka

( see Gascoyne,

Ford

and

Schwarcz, 1983a);

i . e .

the

phrea t ic cave

was a l

re ady

drained

~ n d r e l i c t .

Many of ou r samples grew

a t

i n t e rva l s

dur ing the per iod

3

10

-

180

ka. For example,

77159

is

a f lowstone col lec ted

in

s i t u a t

the

b ack of

the

cave, 5 m above

the

presen t

(excavated) f loor .

t

i s probably a remn

ant

of a once-cont inuous f lowstone cover

in the

back

.

t

cons i s t s of four t h in

c a l c i t e

l ay e r s

each

of d i f fe re n t

colrnlr

separated by

d e t r i t a l

hor izons

.

The

lowest

l

aye

r

iS rv

307

ka

in

age

and the

top

layer ,

V

I04

ka.

Jus t

10

cm

of

c a l c i t e and c l a s t i c

depos i t s

accumulated dur ing a 200,000 Yf ar span a t

t h i s

protected place .

The most impor tant

Victor ia

Cave

speleothem

was

a

sample taken

from a la rge , slumped

and bur i ed f lowstone in a

loop passage

against the cave back wal l . t waS exposed in a

t rench excavated

by Alan

King in

1977, when sample 77151 was col lec ted (Tab

le

2) .

In

1979,

sample 79151

was col lec ted fo r fur ther

s t ra t i g ra ph ic

s tud ie s .

t i s shown

in

Pla te

5 .

The f lowstone grew upon

a

ca lc i t e

- cemented,

f ragmenta l c l ay r e s t ing on

bedrock .

The

clay

has been s tud ied

by Dr

. John

Cat t

. He found

the

sand

s i z e

f r ac t ion to comprise c lay

aggregates cemented

by i ron oxides . When compared

with othe

r

c l a s t i c

sediments

in the

cave ,

t h i s c ha ra c t e r i s t i c suggests

a

f a i r ly

cold

environment before

the ca lc i t e deposi t ion

began

.

Pla te

5

shows how r i ch ly var ied

t h i s

deposi t i s . t d i sp l ays s t rong

colour

banding th a t

ind ica tes va r i a t ions in the a

mount

of organic o r f ine

c lay

contaminants in

the

feed wa t e rs .

t

shows

a f i r s t growth hia tus a t the 281 ka pos i t ion

and

a second , much s t ronger , h ia tus

a t

i t s

cen t r e (263 ka ) . Shat te red s traw s t a l a c t i t e s r es t on th i s cen t r a l break and are

incorpora ted in to the base of the ov e rgrowth . The i r presence may suggest a phase

of

effec t ive

f ros t

sha t t e r he re in the back

of

the cave , though other exp lana t ions are poss ib le .

A

t o t a l

of

12

U-

se r ies

dates

have

been

obta ined

for

77151

/

79151,

as

shown

in the

Pla te

.

One of t hese ,

205

ka,

has been re jec ted as

it was

based

on only a small weight of ca lc i t e

and

was

out of s t ra t i g ra ph ic sequence . There a re th ree add i t iona l

da te s

for

t h i s

deposi t

from a s ta lagmite , 79158 (P la t e 5) , growing on top of the f lowstone nearby . The age record

fo r the

e n t i r e

speleothem appea

r s ve

ry

consis tent

except fo r one anomalous date

of

188 ka in

the cen t re . Two repea t dat ings of the same ca lc i t e l ayers

gave

more acceptable ages

of

255

and

252 ka and so

the 188

ka age

i s

re jec ted .

This

f lowstone beg

an to grow on top of

a cool

or cold

phase deposi t about

320

ka .

Growth

ceased ,

apparent

l y

br i e f ly ,

around 280 ka. There

was

a

longer

ha l t from app

roximately

263 to

255

ka

, when s h a t t e r ed s traws f e l l onto the surface . Growth

was then

renewed and appears to

have cont inued

rath er

s t e a d i ly

to some t ime between 170 and 180 ka .

All

growth then ceased

permanently

a t th i s s i t e .

The

deposi t waS bur i ed by clays a t some l a t e r

t ime

. Because the

e r ro r margins on the dates

are

qu i te l a rge , the per iods of no growth in the sample

(espec ia l ly

,

the cen t r a l h ia tus ) could be much

la rger

than the i n t e rva l suggested ,

perhaps

as long as

30 ,

000

years

.

From ur

co l l e c t ions

in the

cave in

1977 and 1979, only one sample ( the

t h in upper

f lowstone of

77159)

proved

to

be

of

l a s t

i n t e rg l a c i a l

age

.

However,

the archaeologica l

excava tor s

had

recovered many

bones

of

warm

cl imate

animals from

the Lower Cave Earth

(Tiddeman,

1873;

Sutc l i f f e e t

a l

1976). These included hippopotamus

and

rhinoceros

and were considered to be Ipswichian or Last In t e rq l a c i a l f au na. Many of the

bones

were

encased

in cave

c a l c i t e

. We obta ined seven da te s f ~ o m such sample s (donated

by

Tom Lord

of

Set t le ). Their ages

range

from 135 to 114 ka ,

which

complete ly confirms t he suppos i t i on

tha t th i s

i s

a fauna from

the

c l i m a t i c peak

of

the l a s t

i n t e rg l a c i a l

(Gas coyne e t aI , 1981) .

Two spe leothems (76153

and

77230H) are

of

recent

age.

Both were contaminated

with

d e t r i t a l thorium and may be much younge r

than quoted

. Lack of o ther young samples suggests

tha t

e a r l i e r

v is i to r s

had

taken them,

as

they are the most a t t r ac t ive and access ib le .

All

geomorphologica l evidences

suggest t ha t

Victor ia

Cave i s

a

pa r t i c u l a r ly old fea tu re

in the Craven

ka r s t (Sweeting, 1974) .

t is

a phrea t ic r e l i c t t runca ted by c l i f f erosion.

Our

speleothem

dates ind ica te t ha t

it i s

much

o lder than

350

ka

and i t i s l i ke ly t ha t t he

cave

was dra ined before

500 ka . Sta t i s t i ca l i n t e rp r e ta t ions

of the

U i so topic

r a t i o s in cer ta in

samples

sugges t s

t ha t

dra inage

could

even

have

occurred before

1.5 mil l ion

years ag o

.

Deposi ts older than

350

ka,

whatever

t he i r

t rue

age

may be, d isplay pat te rns of growth

and

h ia tuses

s imi la r

t o

younger

ones . This sugges t s

a

l t e rna t i ng warm

,

cool

and

cold

per iods

( i . e .

glac ia l

types of

cl imate) in Yorkshire

before

350'

ka . A grea t

deal of

flowstone waS

deposi ted

between 320

and 180 ka

.

t seems t ha t t h i s

lon g

per iod was more

moder a te

than

l a te r

t imes , w i th no pro t rac ted

g lac ia t ion

occur r ing

in

the Dales

.

GENER L

C VE

CHRONOLOGY

ND

EROSION

R TES

Cave

Chronology

in Craven.

The forego

ing

pages have shown t ha t the m

ajo

r

cave

systems in Craven were

developed

over

350 ,

000

years

ag o

. Waltham

(1970

, 1974) regarded

the

r e l i c t high - l eve l tunnels in these

caves as evidence for p r eg lac ia l

development

up

to

55 m below a common ,

reg iona l

water tab le .

The

a pp a ren t l ack of vadose forms

in the tunnels

waS thought to be

due

to rapid

dra ining

when

val leys

were inc i sed

dur ing

glac ia t ion . Walth am a l so

cons idered most

u r r e n t l y ~ t i v e vadose

caves to be

post

- glac ia l and therefo re younger than 15

ka

. These

ideas

were c r i t i c i s e d by

Brook

(1971) who

pointed out tha t

many caves

a t present

conta in f looded sec t ions which

are

perched

we

ll

above

base l evel ,

due

to damming by sediments

or s t ruc tu ra l

fea tu res . Brook

a l so

noted

t ha t

the

i n t e rva l

between

preg l a c i a l

and

pos t -g lac ia l

cave

format ion

was

consider

able and was

not considered

by I'laltham (197 0) . Based on sequences seen

in

the Leck

Fe l l

caves

,

Waltham

(1974c)

rev i sed

h i s concept of cave development

and

proposed in s tead f ive

s tages of

e ros ion or

sedimenta t ion. These cor re la ted , respec t ive ly , with

i n t e rg l a c i a l s and

g la c i a l s

.

80

8/21/2019 BCRA 11-2-1984


The

reg iona l wate r t ab l e concept was given new l i f e by

Waltham and Harmon

(1977) and

Atkinson

e t

a l (1978). In a paper

repor t ing

the f i r s t da tes on B r i t i sh speleothems, they

placed

the water tab le a t

265

m

a . s . l .

in

the

west near the Dent

F a u l t , r i s i n g

to over

300 m a s l in the Ingleborough area . They a l s o t i e d it i n w i th e l ev a t io n s of e ros ion

surfaces and re juvena t ion poin ts

seen

in

va l ley

prof i l e s . Dates

on White

Scar and Ringsdale

Master

Cave

speleothems

were evidence t ha t g l a c i a l deepening of major v a l l ey s occur red

before about 400

ka.

Deepening of

up to 75

m and

consequent re juvena t ion

were thought

to

be

rap id and were a t t r ibu ted to the

f i r s t

B r i t i sh glac ia t ion ( th e

Angl ian

Stage) .

Re s u l t s

from the presen t s tudy

g e n e ra l ly agree

with the g rea t an t iqu i ty of Craven

caves

proposed by Atkinson e t

a l

(1978).

We

p re fe r

a

l e s s ca t as t ro p h ic

process o f

va l ley

lowering

and cave development , however, fo r the fol lowing reasons:

(1) t h e c l a s s i c a l

water tab le concept i s not

g e n e ra l ly v a l i d

in

kars t

reg ions ,

except

on

a very loc a l

i sed

sca le .

Many

of the r e l i c t tunne ls may have formed under a perched

phrea

s

.

Glover (1974),

fo r ins tance,

has noted four types

of p h rea t i c

passage a t s imi l a r l eve l s in

the Gaping Gi l l

system,

but each

o f

d i f f e r e n t o r i g i n .

(2)

the f i r s t

g l a c i a l

event in

B r i t a i n

i s u n l ik e ly

to have caused over 80

percen t

of

the

t o t a l va l l e y

entrenchment

in

Craven. The marine pa laeoc l imat ic record c la ims mult ip le

glac ia t ions of s imi la r i n t ens i ty were more cha rac t e r i s t i c of

Pleis tocene

t ime. The 75

m

re juvena t ion i s more l i ke ly a

product

o f th ree o r

more

glac ia t ions spread over several

hundred thousand

years .

The apparent

l ack

of vadose

f ea tu res which ind icated a

rap id down

cu t t ing

may

simply

be due

to

i n f i l l by

sediments

and block ia l l . Severa l anc ien t tunnels , in

fac t ,

do

conta in such fea tu res , e .g .

Gavel

Pot main streamway, the Lancas te r Hole-Ease G i l l

Caverns

main

streamway and

upper

tunnels , the Lyle Cavern Ser i es in Los t Jo h n s and Sand

Caverns in Gaping Gi l l .

The genera l

chronology

of

cave

formation in Craven i s one dominated by

t h e r a t e of

v a l l ey

inc i s ion in to the Grea t Scar l imes tone . Differ ing eros ional condi t ions have

caused

these

ra te s to

vary over Quate rnary

t ime .

Large

tunnel

formation may

well

have

occur red

dur ing

preg lac ia l t imes (more

than

1-2 mil l ion years ago) but a t e l ev a t io n s co n t ro l l ed

by

l o ca l base

l eve l s

of

eros ion ,

ra the r than

a reg ional water tab le . With the onset

of glac ia t ion

in

B r i t a i n ,

more

rap id

downcut t ing

of va l ley f l o o r s

ensued,

tempered

by

l i t ho log ica l and s t ruc tu ra l

var ia t ions

in

the l imes tones .

There

i s ,

as ye t , no d e f i n i t i v e evidence to show t h a t

one

s ing le

g lac ia t ion

in Bri t a in caused most

of the

v a l l ey formation and

cave

development in

th e

Dales .

Vadose

channel

entrenchment r a t e s .

Some

entrenchment

ra t e s

are

quoted in Table 3. These

are

obta ined

by

tak ing the he igh t

of

an

in

s i t u s t a l ag mi t e sample above the

presen t

bedrock channel

f loor ,

and div id ing t h i s by

the basa l V-ser i es age obta ined . Resu l ts a re the mean maximum

ent r enchment ra te s

over the

span

of

t ime

between the b asa l age and the

presen t day. They

vary from

2 .2 to

8.3 cm per

1,000

years .

T BLE 3 PASSAGE ENTRENCHMENT

R TES

FOR C VES

IN

THE

CR VEN DISTRICT

USING

B S L 23 0

Th

/234

GES ND ELEVATION OF SPELEOTHEMS (from Gascoyne e t al 1983a)

Cave

Type

of

depos i t

Los t Jo h n s

Cave

Wall f lowstone

Kingsdale

Master

Resolu t ioned

roof

Cave

f lows tone

Ingleborough Cave

Flowstone

Ease

Gi l l

Caverns

Loose

f lowstone

White

Scar Cave

Loose

f lowstone

Height

above

s t ream

m)

2 5

. - 11

---4

-2 0

,,20

Basa l

age

(ka)

115

300

~ 120

240

~ 3 5 0

Mean

maximum

downcut t ing

r a t e (cro/ka)

2.2

3.7

~ 3 2

8.3

~ 5 7

The measurement from the Main Drain a t

Lost

Jo h n s Cave i s t h e bes t

because

the samples

were

co l lec ted

in the

growth

p o s i t i o n di rec t ly

above

the channel. The Lancas te r Hole and

White Scar samples were

disp laced .

We have assumed

t h a t

they had not moved grea t

dis tances

from

t h e i r

growth

p o s i t i o n s when

co l lec ted

but it i s poss ib le t ha t

they had,

in which case

the va lues

quoted

in

the

Table

are

not

mean maxima

but

something

l e ss

than

t ha t .

The

Ringsda le

and Ingleborough Cave samples were in the growth p o s i t i o n s but

modern

stream

channe ls

have

s h i f t e d l a t e r a l l y so

t ha t they

are

some

metres d i s t a n t .

A

cutdown ra t e , as

in

t h e t ab le , does not

express

t h i s l a t e r a l

eros ion .

It i s

i n t e r e s t i n g

to

compare these ra te s with

those

obta ined

by

di rec t ly measuring

bed

lower ing

in

l ims tone

channe ls

by

means

of micrometers , (High and

Hanna,

1970;

Coward, 1975) .

The

micrometer r a t e s , ca lcu la ted from measur ing

per iods

rang ing

from a

few

months

up to two

years ,

are

about an . order of magnitude grea te r

than

our r a t e s . This i s probably

because

there

i s

always a

t endency

to

place

the

micrometer in

the

most

ac t iv e places

because

the

most

re l i ab le measurements can be obta ined over sh o r t per iods the re . Our V- se r i es -b ased ra te s are

determined

by

averaging

very long

t ime in te rva l s (90,000

years a t Los t Jo h n s ) . It seems

qui te

l i k e l y

t ha t fo r

s u b s t a n t i a l

pa r t s of these

i n t e r v a l s

no

entrenchment was

occurr ing because

channel beds

were

b u r ie d ( armoured )

by a p ro t ec t i v e

d e t r i t a l

l ay e r .

81

8/21/2019 BCRA 11-2-1984


17

1

8

V l

::: ;

w

r

6

W

...J

W

Q.

V l

4

0

a

w

2

I)

::: ;

:>

z

0

40

Figure

4

eo 120

200

250

GE

(-Ita)

. 230 234

H1stogram of

Th/

U ages for al l speleothems from caves

in

Craven

except

those

showing de t r i ta l

thorium

contamination

(from Gascoyne e t a l ,

1983b).

Top and basal

ages

of

a speleothem

define

the l imi ts

of

growth. Ages

above and below a

hiatus

are

used

instead, when applicable .

Peaks

and troughs

in growth

frequency are

correlated with

warm and cold climates, respectively (see text ) .

The

entrenchment of va l l ey f loors

300

350

In the same fash10n, the e leva t ions o f dated

s ta lagmi tes

above adjoin ing spr ings and

va l l ey

f loo r s may be used to obta in maximum average r a t es of

va l l ey

deepening during

t he

measured t ime spans . We

have

determined r a t es for only two

va l l eys ,

so f a r , and ne i ther

i s

as prec i se as we would wish. Never the less ,

t hey

are i n t e r e s t i n g and

t end

to

con t r ad i c t

e a r l i e r es t i m a t e s .

The speleothems in Kingsdale Master

Cave

a re approximate ly 11 m above the modern

water tab le .

They

are

only about 5 m

above

the

present

f l oo r

of

the

dale ,

because the da le

i s i n f i l l e d with gravelS which bury bedrock to a depth t ha t is perhaps as

grea t

as 25 m.

Assuming t h i s

l

a t t

e r

( l i ke l y

maximum

va lue ,

then

t he

bedrock

f loor

has been

entrenched

no

more than 30 m

s ince

the f i r s t speleothem growth b

egan in

a dra ined and abandoned Roof

Tunnel

about 300,000

years

ag o

.

This

gives a maximum deepening

r a t e of 10

cm per

1,000 years . The

s ta lagmi tes

may wel l be a little

older

and the dale f l oo r was almost

c e r t a i n l y a few metres belOW

t he i r

l eve l

when

t hey

began to

grow. The maximum mean r a te

has , t he re fo re ,

most l i ke l y

been l e s s

t han 10

cm. This

r e s u l t i s

very s imi l a r to ra t es

we have obta ined for

g lac i a t ed

val leys in the Rocky Mountains of

Canada

(Ford e t aI , 1981) .

The

o ldes t speleothems

a t Whitescar Cave

are about 70 m

above the

f loor of Chapel-Ie-Dale,

which i s

inc i sed i n to

basement

rocks . The

speleothems are

older

than 350 ka.

This gives

a

maximum mean r a t e o f < 2 0 cm per 1,000 years for the l a s t 350,000 years .

Most previous authors

have

a t t r i bu t e d

va l l ey

, deepening

in

Craven

to g lac i a l

scour .

Atkinson e t a l , (1978)

suggested

t ha t there may have

been

as much as 75 m o f

deepening

dur ing the

f i r

s t

g lac i a t ion t ha t

is

recognised in the

B r i t i s h

record , the

Angl ian .

Brook

(1974) proposed

20-50 m

of

entrenchment per

g lac i a t ion ,

supposing

t ha t

t he r e have

been

th ree o r more

g lac i a t ions .

More

conserva t ive ly ,

Sweet ing (1974) es t imated 60 m

for

t he

sum

of a l l glac ia l deepening in the Dales.

The f

requency

dis t r ibu t ion

of

speleothem

ages

(d iscussed

below)

sugges ts t ha t t he r e have

been

e i t he r two or three f u l l

g lac i a t ions

of the

D i s t r i c t

dur ing the pas t 350,000 years .

Assuming

the l a t t e r , we obta in a

g l a c i a l / i n t e r g l a c i a l

cycle per iod of

about

120,000 yea r s .

A l o t of

qu i t e

independent evidence for

such per iOdic i ty

has

been

obta ined elsewhere

in

the

wor ld .

Maximum mean r a t es o f < 1 2 to «::24 m per cycle re su l t , for Kingsdale a

nd

Chapel - le -Dale ,

in f a i r agreement with

Sweet ing S

es t imate i f

it

i s assumed t ha t the th ree g lac i a t ions

recognised

in

the B r i t i s h record were,

in

f ac t , a l l t h a t occurred in the Dales .

Nor thern

Hemisphere deep sea core data sugges t

10

g lac i a t ions

dur ing

the pas t one mill ion years

(Shackle ton

and Opdyke, 1973) , so it i s qui te poss ib le t ha t the amount

of

glac ia l deepening

i s

much

gr ea t e r t han 60

m.

I f we assume t ha t t he r e have been many

g lac i a t ions

of the Craven D i s t r i c t , with mean

deepening proceeding a t the

maximum

r a te suggested for the pas t 350 ka, then

the

i nc i s i on of

the

uppermost

beds of the Great Scar l imestone to

form

the

Yorkshi r e

Dales w i l l have begun

between one and

two mil l ion

years ago.

I f

the mean r a t es

are lower ,

then the

dates are

grea te r

t han

two mil l ion years

in or ig in

and the e a r l i e s t surviv ing caves a re t r u l y

p r e g l a c i a l

in the

chronologica l sense .

This

i s

highly specula t ive . t

i s

obvious

t ha t

we need

more

dated

cave /da l e f loor co r re l a t ions , an d new methods to

extend

cave dat ing back beyond 350

ka.

CLIMATIC SIGNIFICANCE

OF

SPELEOTHEM AGES

Frequency of growth

and

r e l a t i on

to

c l imate .

In F1g. 4 we have p lo t t ed uncontam1nated speleothem age

r e s u l t s

as a

f requency

histogram.

Only

growth per iods are

ac tua l ly

used in t h i s p l o t ,

r a ther

t han

ind iv idua l

ages, because th i s

avoids

bias

given

to

speleothems which were dated

severa l

t imes .

82

8/21/2019 BCRA 11-2-1984


A number of pe r iods of

p len t i f u l

speleothem deposi t ion c an be

seen

in

the age range

o

to 350 ka and beyond. There are many r e s u l t s

fo r

speleothems under 15

ka. This

i s l a rge ly

due

to the

be t t e r

chance

of

prese rva t ion

of the

younger depos i t s . Older samples are more

l ike ly

to

have suf fered

e ros ion o r

b u r i a l during the

l a s t glac i a t ion .

This bias i s o f f s e t to

some

ex ten t

by our de l ibe ra t e co l l ec t ion of • old-looking

speleothems,

so tha t more ancien t

morpholog ica l events could

be

dated.

In

Pa r t

I o f th i s paper Gascoyne e t

a l ,

1978) we showed how the frequency of speleo them

growth may

be

r e l a t ed t o pas t

c l ima tes .

Warm per iods were marked by

many

depos i t s ; increased

C02 product ion in so i l s

and

presence

of free ly-f lowing

groundwater

encouraged the l imestone

diss o lu t ion

-ca l

c i t e prec ip i ta t ion

process .

The l a s t ten

thousand

yea

r s

i s

known to

have

been

such a per iod ( the

Holocene)

and i s wel l - represen ted by high frequency growth

in

F ig . 4.

Other

in te rva l s of

p l en t i fu l growth are a l so l i k e l y to be

of

i n t e rg l ac i

a l

charac te r

al though

f requencies wi l l be

lower because

of

removal

by eros ion

and

bur i a l.

In con t ras t , lower t empera tures prevent

CO

2

product ion and f reeze

groundwater

so

t ha t

per iods of low o r zero age frequency probably correspond

to

cold o r g lac ia l

c l ima tes .

Lack of

deposi ts between

15

and 35 ka i s

such a per iod

and cor re l a t e s with

the Late

Devensi

an

glac i a t ion ,

dated independent ly by 4C analysis o f

sur face depos i t s .

A

s imi l a r

per iod occurred between

140 and 165

ka

and i s l i k e l y

a l so

to have been a very cold event in

t r ~

area . Other per iods

of in te rmi t ten t

growth

, such as

35

to

80 ka

suggest cool to

mild condi t ions .

The

r e s u l t s in

Fig.4 agree wel l with

the

t iming o f g

l a c i a l - i n t e r

g lac ia l s tages seen in

ocean core i so top ic records and

foss i l

ree f t e r race da tes .

De ta i l ed

cor re l a t ion

of the

Craven

speleothem

record with

these global

indica tors

i s

descr ibed by

Gascoyne e t

a l

1983b).

Corre la t ion

with

the B r i t i s h

cl ima t e

record.

By

ana

logy w ~ t the Holocene growth record ,

the

broad peak between 90 and 140 ka

in F ig .4

can

be

cor re l a t ed with the l a s t

i n t e rg lac ia l .

This i s known

as

the

Ipswichian

in the

Br i t i sh

sequence.

In

f ac t ,

the

Ipswichian

i s more

accura te ly

def ined as the

period

between

115 and

135 ka, from

the

Vic to r i a

Cave

mammal-flowstone

dates .

It i s poss ib le t h a t 90

to

115 ka

may

be

a second unnamed) i n t e rg l ac i a l s t age . Al t e rna t ive ly , the same animals as dated a t Victor ia

Cave may

have

inh ab i t ed B r i t a i n dur ing t h i s

i n t e rva l

a l so , t o accoun t

fo r

the many s imi l a r

remains elsewhere in the country.

Carbon-14 dates of organ ic

deposi ts in

so i l s and

bee t l e remains Coope,

1975)

have

shown

t h a t the per iod 35 to 70 ka

was

one o f a l te rna t ing co ld to mild clima t e . This

agrees

with

the sporad ic speleo them growth seen in F ig. 4 . A

shor t

warm event ( the

Upton

Warren i n t e r

s tad ia l ) has

also been

recognised

from bee t l e

data and t h i s can

be

seen in speleothem dates as

a

Sl igh t

increase in growth f requency between 38 and 44 ka. Before t h i s , growth was more

discont inuous ,

probably

due to co ld cl imates with occasional f looding of the caves ,

seen

as

mud

l aye rs

in

many

o f the dated

depos i t s .

This i s the non-g lac i a l , Ear ly

Devensian

s tage in

the B r i t i s h record.

The

r e s u l t s in Fig . 4 allow us to place dates on the penul t imate glac i a t i on

in

B r i t a i n ,

between 140 and 165 ka. This in te rva l of zero growth may

be

cor re l a t ed with

the

Wolstonian

g lac ia t ion . The lack of

accurate ages fo r

e a r l i e r per iods in the B r i t i s h

Ple i s tocene

record

preven ts

us from d i rec t l y cor re l a t ing othe r s t ages with the speleothem record.

The

broad

peak

from 180

to

320

ka

may

r e l a t e

to

the

Hoxnian

i n t e rg l ac i a l

and

perhaps

the

Anglian

g lac ia t ion

i s c lose

to the

da t ing

l imi t about 350

ka) .

Unfor tunate ly ,

t h i s

r

emains specu la t ive because

the Hoxnian and e a r l i e r s tages r e s t on a f loa t ing t ime sca le which i s determined only by the

i n t e r - r e l a t i o n s h i p o f

the type -sec t ions

fo r which these events are def ined .

Corre la t ion o f

dated speleothems

in

the c

ave

to

the

type sec t ion

fo r

a given

s tage

i s seldom

poss ib le , l a rge ly

because kars t regions , because of t he i r e leva t ion , t end to be

cen t res

of e ros ion , no t depos i t ion.

SUMM RY

ND

CONCLUSIONS

Uranium-ser ies

ages

of 87

speleothems from caves in

the

Craven d i s t r i c t have shown the

an t iqu i ty

of

r e l i c t ,

upper

l eve l s

of

these

systems.

Ind iv idua l

ages

have

been used to i n fe r

loca l chronologies of passage development . Maximum average ra tes of cave

passage

entrenchment

of

between 2 and 8 cm/ka

have

been determined from dated speleothems ad jacen t to a l oca l

base

l e v e ~

Ext rapo la t ion

of

these

r e su l t s

al lows ca lcu la t ion

of the r a t e of eros ion during

g l a c ~ a t ~ o n

and

an

age of up to two

mil l ion

years i s es t imated

fo r

the

Yorkshire

Dales. Cave

formation

in the

Dales

i s i n fe r red to be

a gradual process , con t ro l l ed

both by cl imate and

loca l

geological

cha rac t e r i s t i c s .

It

i s

probable

tha t

v a l l e y

entrenchment

in the

Craven

d i s t r i c t

has

been

a

more

gradual

process than t h a t proposed

by

Waltham

1970)

and Atkinson e t a l

1978),

and has occurred

in

s teps

o f< 2 5 m over severa l

i n t e rg lac ia l /g l ac ia l

cycles

fo r

perhaps the l a s t 1 to 2 mil l ion

yea rs . might

t h e r e ~ o r e an t ic ipa te

the

pr

7

sence

of

even

higher - level

fo s s i l tunne l s , da t ing

from

a t ~ m e when the

l ~ m e s t o n e was

only pa r t l a l ly exposed and val leys

were

ent renched i n to the

upper most beds alone. Vic to r i a

Cave

and others in the area may be ev idence o f

t h i s s i tua t ion ,

but few are

known

today, probably because of t runca t ion and extens ive col lapse .

Ages

o f

Craven

speleothems

have a l so been

used to determine the c l imate of the

Dales

over

the

p a s ~

~ O O O O O years . Per iods o f

high

frequency growth are seen in the Holocene . .

a n ~ a

s ~ m ~ l a r abundance between 90 and

135 ka

i s i n t e rp re t ed as the l a s t

i n t e rg l ac i a l

in the

B r ~ t i s h c l imate record. The Ipswichian i n t e rg l ac i a l

forms

a t l e a s t

one par t

o f th i s per iod

from

115 to 135 ka. For the f i r s t t ime, abso lu te dates have been placed on the Wolstonian

s tage

commonly accepted

to

be

the

Penul t imate g lac ia t ion ,

from

140

to 165

ka.

At the moment, dlder events cannot

be

eas i l y reso lved

from the

speleothem r e s u l t s

but

with

care .

and

the r igh t deposi ts (h igher uranium speleothems

and

longer count ing t imes) it may

be

p o s s ~ b l e to b e t t e r define l i m i t s o f c l ima t i c events in B r i t a i n pr io r t o

165 ka.

Other dat ing

~ e t h o d ~ m u s t u l t ~ ~ ~ t e 2 ~ ~ b e ~ s e d however, to . ex tend

the

record back b e y o n ~ 350 ka. The

uranium

~ s o t o p ~ c

r a t ~ ~

ul

- 0 ,

on

7

such

t e c h n ~ q u e

and

has

been

used

t e n t a t ~ v e l y

to es t ima te the

age

of ~ ~ c t o r ~ a

Cave.

T h e ~ m o ~ u m ~ n e s c e n c e

and e lec t ron spin resonance

t echniques

have

po ten t ia l

fo r d a t ~ n g to beyond

one

m ~ l l ~ o n

years ,

but much work

remains to

be done before they

can

be

used conf iden t ly

fo r speleo them

da t ing .

83

8/21/2019 BCRA 11-2-1984


ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Many

cavers

are

thanked

for

helping the f i r s t

au

thor to col lect samples analyzed

in

this

study,

especial ly Danny Elwood, members

of L.U.S.S.

and

cavers

a t Whernside

Manor.

Dick

Glover i s grateful ly acknowledged

f

or

his help

and enthusiasm, and

for several samples

from

the Gaping Gill area . Dr John

Fa

r rer , Bob

Jarman

and Al f

Hurworth,

and

Julian

Barker

kindly gave

permis sion

to sample

from

par ts of the Gaping

Gil l - Ingleborough

Cavern

and

White

Scar

C

aves

respect ively

. Tom Lord

kindly provided samples

from

the

V

ic

tor ia

Cave

col lect ion

in

the Pigyard Museum Set t le , and Alan

King

is thanked for

his

help and

inte

r es t

in

sampling

Victoria

Cave.

Ada Dixon

Marija Russell and

Nicky

Cesar

provided

analyt ical

support a t various ti m es over

the course of

this

work and

financial

suppor

t

wa

s

obtained

from

the

National Science

and

Engin

eering

Rese

arch

Council

of

Canada.

REFERENCES

Atkinson,

T.C., Harmon

R.S., Smart, P.L. and

Waltham,

A.C. 1978

.

Paleoclimatic and

geomorphic implications of 23OTh/

234

U

dates on speleothems

from Bri ta in .

Nature

vol .

272,

pp24-28.

Brook, D 1971. Cave Development

in

Craven - a comment . University o f

Leeds

Speleological

Association

Rev

ie w

No.8 , pp31-34.

Brook, D 1974. Cave

development

in Kingsdale

in

Limestones

and

caves o f North -West England.

Waltham,

A.C.

ed . , David

and

Charles,

Newton,

pp310-334.

Brook, A and

D., Davies,

G.M. and Long, M.H. 1981.

Northern

Caves Dalesman Books, Clapham,

N

Yorks, U.K.

Coope, G.R. 1975.

Climatic

f luctuat ions

in northwest Europe since the Last In terg lac ia l

indicated

by

foss i l

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Coleoptera

in

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Ancient and Modern. A.E.

Wright

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pp.153-168.

Co

ward, J.M.H . 1975. Paleohydrology and streamflow simulation o f three

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F.M. 1968.

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H M

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Eyre, J .

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Ashmead, P.F.

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Lancaster

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Ford, D.C.,

Schwarcz, H.P., Drake,

J . J . ,

Gascoyne,

M.,

Harmon R.S.

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Latham,

A.G.

1981.

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the age of

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processing

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precision.

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Ford,

D. C. 1978. Uranium ser ies dat ing and

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Gascoyne, M., Currant, A.P.

and Lord,

T.C. 1981. Age of

the Ipswichian fauna

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corre la t ion to the marine palaeoclimatic record. Nature vol . 294, pp652-

654.

Gascoyne,

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1983a.

Rates

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the Yorkshire Dales from

speleothem age

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Processes and

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vol .

8, pp557-568.

Gascoyne,

M.,

Schwarcz, H.P.

and Ford, D.C. 1983b. Uranium-series ages of speleothems from

north-west England: correlat ion

with Quaternary

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London vol.

B301,

pp143-164.

Glover,

R.R.

1974.

Cave development i n

the

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system in

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David and

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Abbot, pp343-384.

High, C.

and

Hanna, F.K. 1970.

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direct measurement

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5, Brit ish Geomorphological Research Group, 24

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Shackleton, N.J.

and Opdyke, N.D. 1973. Oxygen

isotope

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palaeomagnetic

strat igraphy of

5

equatorial Pacific

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temperatures

and

ice

volumes on a 10

year and 10

6

year

scale .

Quat.

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vol . 3, pp39-55.

Sutcl i f fe , A.J. , Bramwell,

D.,

King,

A and

Walker,

M

1976.

Cave

palaeontology and

archaeology

in

The Science o f Speleology.

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Ford and C.H.D.

Cull ingford,

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pp495-549.

Sweeting,

M M 1950.

Erosion

cycles

and l imestone caverns

in the

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dis t r i c t .

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M: M 1974.

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geomorphology in

North-West England

in

Limestones

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Waltham,

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pp46-78.

Thompson,

P. 1981. The deepest and

longest caves. Caving Internat ional

No. 12, pp16-17.

Thompson, P. , Schwarcz, H.P. and Ford, D.C. 1976. Stable isotope geochemistry,

geothermometry and geochronology

of

speleothems

from West

Virginia.

Geol. Soc.

Amer.

Bul l . vol .

87,

pp1730-1738.

Tiddeman, R.H.

1873.

The

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Set t le ,

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Waltham, A.C., 1970.

Cave development

in the l imestone

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the Ingleborough Dis t r ic t

Geogr. Jour. ,

vol . 136, pp.

574-585.

Waltham,

A.C., 1971.

Shale

uni ts in The

Great Scar

Limestone of the southern Askrigg Block.

Proc.

Yorkshire

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Waltham, A.C., ed.) . 1974a. Limestones

and Caves

o f North-West England.

David and

Charles,

Newton Abbot, 477 p.

Waltham,

A.C.,

1974b. he

Geology o f

Southern Askrigg Block with special

reference

to the

cavernous

l imestones). in

Limestones

and Caves o f North-West

England. David and Charles,

Newton Abbot, 22-45.

Waltham, A.C. 1974c.

he

Chronology o f the Caves, in Limestones

and

Caves o f North-West

England. David and Charles, Newton Abbot, pp.440-450.

Waltham,

A.C.,

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Trans.

Bri t

Cave

Res.

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pp.345-354.

Waltham,

A.C. and

HARMAN R.S.,

1977. Chronology

of cave development in

the

Yorkshire

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Speleol .

Congr.

Sheffield,

England, 1977 pp.423-425.

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Caves

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G.T.,

1971. Caves and

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pp.123-130.

Hutchinson, Loridon . 447 pp.

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Gascoyne,

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85

and

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Hamilton,

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Canada.

8/21/2019 BCRA 11-2-1984


CAVE

SCIENCE

Transact ions of

the

Br i t i sh Cave Research Assoc iat ion Vol

11, Ju ly

1984 .

FURTHER

WATER

TRACING

EXPERIMENTS

AT

CASTLETON

DERBYSHIRE

N.

S.J .Chr i s t ophe r

Abs t rac t

Thre

e

s inks

on

Ru s

hup Edge,

Derbyshire ,

were

s imultaneously

marked

with

th ree

sepa ra te

dyes . Using

a

combination o f

charcoa l

and cot ton

de tec tor s

th

e

water

from

a l l th ree s inks

was found

to

ente r Speedwell Cavern

a t

t he Main Ris ing . Observat ions o f f low condi t ions show

t h a t the p r i n c i p a l flow

from

the Rushup

Edge

swa l le t s e i th e r

en ters

a t

Main

Ris ing or

a t

Whirlpool Rising, bu t

not both .

Surveying

shows Wh i r l p o o l Rising to be

B.35m

higher

in

a l t i t u d e

than

Ma

in Ris ing and

therefore

open passage must e x i s t upstream of Main Rising with

a

dive rgence

o f

waters

being caused

by

a temporary b lockage

such as

a sandbank a t

t imes .

INTRODUCTICN

The work car r ied

out

during 1980 a t Cast le ton Chris topher

e t

aI ,

1981) at tempted to

apply modern hydrologica l t echniques , notably quan t i t a t ive dye t r ac ing and f lood

pulse s tud ies

to

the

Cas t l e t on

aqu i fe r . The

r e s u l t s genera l ly conf i rmed

the

pa t t e rn

es t ab l i shed by

Ford

1955 and 19 7

7 )

and supplemented it with

a

cons iderable amoun

t

of d e t a i l .

A

major problem was encountered

with

the use of

de tec to r s

for in-cave

s tud ies where

water

samplers could no t

be

i ns t a l l ed or r egu la r ly serv iced; t h i s problem was a l so assoc ia ted wi th

high

and

var i ab le

background

f luorescence

caused by

organic

mat ter

adsorbed

onto

the

charcoal

with the dye.

To

overcome t h i s a spec ia l

technique has

been

developed

Chr i s topher , in prep . ) .

Towards the

end

of

the 1980 pro jec t it

bec

ame

apparen t

th

a t

flow

condi t ions

in

Speedwel l

were more var i ab le

than

previOUSly thought and

t ha t

the

main

flow

could come

from e i t h e r

Main

Ris ing

or

Whir lpool

Ris ing , but apparent ly not both

.

In view of the

d i f f i c u l t y encountered with i n t e r p r e t a t i on

of

in-cave

de tec to r s

because

of the absence of background readings wi th no

dye

present and the

newly

reve

a led

complexi ty

o f

the

Speedwel l

hydrology, a fur the r

s e r i e s o f

dye t r aces

waS

thouqht e s se n t i a l ,

a f t e r

a

s tudy o f background f luorescences obta ined in

the

absence

of

dye. The r e su l t s

of

the back

ground study w i l l be repor ted l a t e r

Chr i s topher , in

prep .)

.

The geologi

c

a l and

geographica l ou t l ines

of

the

Cas t le ton

area have

a l ready been adequa te ly

descr ibed

by

the

autho

r ,

Chris topher

e t aI , 1981)

and Ford

1977) .

FLOW

CONDITIONS IN

SPE

EDWELL

During the

per iod

1978-1983, Speedwel l Cavern was v i s i t e d

i r r e gu l a r l y

by the

author ,

Dr T.

D.

Ford ,

R .

P. Shaw

and J . D.

Ha r r i son , for the purpose of hydrology, water chemis t ry

and

surveying.

During

these

v i s i t s

the

flow

condi t ions

were

noted

and

they

are

summarised

in

Table 1.

TABLE 1

Flow

Condi t ions

in

Speedwel l

Cavern

1978-1983

Dat

e

Feb.

1978

March, 1980

Sept . 1980

Oct.

1980

March,

1981

J u l y ,

1981

Oct . 1981

Nov. 1982

Feb .

1983

Event

V i s i

t

V i s i t

V i s i t

V is it

Major

Flood

V i s i t

V i s i t

V i s i t

V is it

A

Allogenic type water

P Percolat ion

type wate r

Main Flow

From

Main r i s ing

Whir lpool

r i s ing

Whir lpool r i s ing

Whir lpool r i s i ng

Main r i s i ng

Main r i s ing

Main r i s i ng

Whir lpool r i s i ng

Water

Chemist ry

Main

WhirlpOOl

p

A

A

A

A

A

?

A

P

A A

?

Percolat ion

type

water

based on v i sua l evidence

only

very littl f low) .

From t h i s

t a

b l

e

it can be seen

t h a t the pr inc ipa l flow

only

comes

from Main

Ris ing

a f t e r

a

major f lood. Once low flowl condi t ions preva i l for severa l months the f low r ever t s to

Whirlpool

Ris ing

u n t i l the

next

major

f lood.

Secondly, the Whir lpool

Ris ing

only ebbs

and f lows

when it

i s

r egu la r ly t ak ing the pr inc ipa l flow .

On one

occas ion only the

Main

Ris ing has

been

seen to

ebb and

f low.

In

November

1982

water was

s tanding a t the

Boulder P i l e s downstre

am

of Main

Ris ing

about 10 f ee t 3 m

above

normal .

Dur ing the next

hour

it

f e l l

by 6 f ee t

2

m), thereby dra in ing a l o t of ponded

86

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water

r i g h t

up to Main

Ris ing , and then

rose

rapidly towards i t s

previous h igh

l eve l .

This was

soon

a f t e r a

mild f lood and

may

occur qui t e

of ten

but v i s i t s

under

such condi t ions

a re

ra re .

(Verbal

informat ion

from

TDF) .

Table

1

also includes

a

summary

of water

chemis t ry a t the two

r i s ings . The

cha rac te r i s t i c chemis t ry of the

two types ,

namely

a l logen ic

swal le t water and autogenic

percola t ion wate r , are i d en t i f i ed by

calcium,

sodium and

potassium

concentra t ions

Chris topher and

Wilcock, 1981) .

Al logenic water i s

low

in

calcium

(60-70 mg/1)

,

but

high in

sodium

(8-12 mg/1)

and potass ium 0 .9

- 1 .2 mg/1). Autogenic water

i s

high in

calcium ~ O mg/1)

,

low in

sodium (3-5

mg/1) and

potass ium

-0 . 5 mg/1)

.

THE DYE

TR CE

The flow condi t ions in November 1982

ind ica ted

t h a t the

pr inc ipa l

flow of

a l l

the

Rushup Edge swa l l e t s went to Main Ris ing, Speedwell and thence to Russe l l

Well

and

Slop

Moll.

t was therefore decided

to repeat the

1980

t r ac ing

p a t t e rn

but us ing f luoresce in in

place o f l i ssamine. The same i n j ec t ion

poin t s

were used,

namely

P1, P8 and Giants Hole

(P12).

Because o f

the

shor t e r f low t ime es t ab l i shed

in

1980 for P8 (40 hours) to Russel l Well

compared to 7-9

days

fo r

P1

and

95

hours fo r

Giants Hole,

it

waS decided

to tag

P8 with

amino G

acid

and Giants Hole with

f luoresce in

as only a l imi t ed

supp ly

of amino G was

ava i l ab le .

As

before ,

rhodamine WT was used

a t

P11

the de ta i l s are se t

out in

Table

2.

T BLE

2

Dye

In jec t ion

Deta i l s on 7th November 1982

Dye

Rhodamine WT

Fluoresce in

Amino G Acid

Quant i ty

150 ml (20 )

460

243

gm

In j ec t ion

S i t e

P1

P12 (Giants Hole)

P8

Time

15.15

12.00

15.00

Cot ton and

charcoal de tec to r s

were

prepared as

previous ly descr ibed. As before ,

detec tors were placed on

a l l pr inc ipa l

i n l e t s in Speedwel l ,

toge the r

with i n t egra t ed flow

s i t e s

in

the

Main

l eve l

and

a t

the

head o f

the

Bunghole.

Two

de tec to rs

of each type were

used a t

each

s i t e and both co t ton and ac t iva t ed charcoal de tec to r s . All de tec to r s i nse r t ed

were

recovered on 14th November 1982.

All de tec to r s

were

i nd iv idua l ly

bagged and

re turned

for

examinat ion

and

then

washed

f ree o f

mud

and sed iment in

a

s t ream o f t ap wate r .

The

co t ton detec tors were then dr ied

and examined

under a UV lamp

fo r the

cha rac te r i s t i c blue

f luorescence

by

th ree

people ,

independent ly , to prevent b ias .

The

charcoal

de tec to rs

were

e lu t ed

with

a

so lu t ion o f

propanol

5

p a r t s ,

10 KOH

so lu t ion

3

p a r t s , d i s t i l l e d water

2

p a r t s . The whole de tec to r

was

e lu t ed

overnight in

50 ml

of

e lu tan t

which

was

subsequent ly

f i l t e re d and

di lu t ed

up

to

100 ml with

c lean so lven t mix. The r e s u l t s

obtained us ing the

method

of Chris topher

in prep)

a re

presented

in

Table

3 .

T BLE 3

Speedwell

Detec to r Resu l t s 7 th -14 th November, 1982

S i t e

c l i f f

Cavern

Whirlpool Ris ing

Bathing

Pool

Main Rising

Main

Passage Pi t Props)

Bunghole

(Top)

negat ive

(+) doubt ful pos i t i ve

+

pos i t i ve

Amino

G

Acid

(P8)

(Cotton)

(+)

+

+

DISCUSSION

Fluorescein (P12)

Rhodamine Wt(P1)

(Charcoal) (Charcoal)

+ +

The

r e su l t s

in

Table 3

conc lus ive ly show

t ha t

a l l the

flow of

the Rushup

Edge

swa l l e t s

went

to Main Rising on 7-14th November 1982.. This con t rad ic t s the ra ther

complex pa t t e rn

obtained dur ing the previous se t o f t e s t s Chris topher e t aI ,

1981).

Due to high background

f luorescence and i ncor rec t

analy t ica l

teChnique, the previous

amino G

acid (P12) and

l i ssamine FF (P8) r e su l t s

repor ted

then

should now be

discounted .

However, the

f luorescence

a t the

rhodamine

wavelength

i s neg l ig ib l e and

t he

negat ive

r e su l t a t Main Rising

in

October 1980 i s high ly s i g n i f i can t as it could not be obtained

othe r

than

by

the absence

of dye. These r e s u l t s , t he re fo re , suggest tha t

in

October

1980

the P1 water flowed to

Whirlpool

Rising

and

Bathing

Pool, a l so it i s high ly

probable

t h a t a l l other s inks f lowed to

these resurgences ,

to be

red ive r t ed to

Main

Rising

by

the

major

f lood

of

March,

1981.

87

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R. P. Shaw personal communication) has now surveyed both

Main

Passage

and

Whirlpool

Passage,

making a l t i t ude measurements not p rev ious l y av a i l ab l e . Whirlpool Rising i s

8.35 m above Main Rising and approximately 2 m above the Bathing Pool . Therefore , as

the

main

flow from

the

Rushup

Edge swal le t s

goes to

both

Whirlpool

and Main Ris ings ,

there

must be open passage

a f t e r the divergence

to

the two r i s ings . The mechanism of the

diver s ion

i s unclear ,

but t may

be

e i the r a

deep

sed iment - f i l l ed U

tube

with a high

l eve l passage to

Whirlpool

Passage,

or

another down-dip

analogue of Whirlpool Passage beyond

Main

Rising

connect ing Faucet and New

Rake,

conta ining one or more r e s t r i c t e d sumps t ha t become blocked

by

sediment . This

allows flow to proceed to Whirlpool

Ris ing . When a

major f lood f lushes

a l l

the sediment

out ,

the flow rever t s to

Main Ris ing . Whatever

the mechanism, the

prospect

of

fu r t h e r

ex tens ions

by

div ing Main

Rising appear b r i g h t . Diving has

shown t ha t the r i s ing

is 30 m

deep C.D.G. Newslet ters

CKNOWLEDGMENTS

The author would l ike to thank Dr S.Trudgi l l for

supplying

the amino G acid and

rhodamine W

dyes,

Dr T.D.Ford, for arranging access to Speedwell Cavern, and

Richard

Shaw

and

John Harrison for accompanying the author during these t r ips , also .J .Gi l l e t t of Crewe

Caving

Club

for putting

the dye in to Giants

Hole.

REFERENCES

Christopher, N.S.J . ,

Trudgil l ,

S.F. , Crabtree, R. W., Rickles,

A.M.,

Culshaw, S.M. 1981.

A hydrological study of the Cast le ton area, Derbyshire.

Trans Brit Cave Res Assoc vol . 8, no . 4, pp. 189-206.

Christopher,

N.S.J.

Wilcock,

J.M.

1981. Geochemical controls

on the composition

of

limestone

groundwaters

with

specia l

reference

to

Derbyshire.

Trans Brit

Cave Res Assoc

vol .8 , no.3, pp.135-158.

Ford, T.D. 1955. The Speedwell Cavern, Cast le ton, Derbyshire.

Trans ave

Res

Grp G B vol .4 , no.2, pp.129-144.

Ford,

T.D . 1977. Limestones and Caves of the Peak

District

Geobooks, Norwich. 469pp.

M.S.

Received October

1983 .

88

N.S.J.Christopher,

89 Chester

Road,

Poynton, Stockport .

8/21/2019 BCRA 11-2-1984


C VE SCIENCE

Transact ions o f the

Bri t i sh

Cave

Research

Association

. Vol. 11

No.2

July

1984

.

INVERTEBRATES

AT NIAH

GREAT CAVE

BATU NIAH NATIONAL

PARK SARAWAK

Ph i l Chapman

Abst rac t

The

enormous Niah

Great

Cave

conta ins a small but

i n t e r e s t i n g guano

-

assoc ia ted

fauna

which i s

threa tened by

t he

removal

o f

i t s

food

supply

and

des t ruc t ion

o f

i t s hab i t a t

by commercial guano-ga ther ing

and the t ramping f ee t o f

t o u r i s t s .

In

May,

1978

,

the

Spe leo log ica l team

of the

Roya l Geog r aphica l

Soc ie ty

Mu l u

Expedi t ion

was given t he oppo r

t u n i t y to v is

i t

Niah

Gr

ea t

Cave ,

as

gues t s

of

t he Sarawak

Government

s

Dep

a r tment of

Fo r es t s

. The

cave

, a

famous

tou r i s t

a t t

r ac t ion and archaeo l ogica l s i t e , passes

r i g h t

through a n enormous l imestone towe r , the

Batu

Ni ah , s i t u a t ed c l ose t o

Niah

town in the

Gunung

Subis

area of Sarawak 3

0

S8 N , 113

0

46 E) . n account of

the

cave i s given by

Wilford

1964) .

During

our two··day

s tay

a t Niah , I made a sma l l and by no means exhaust ive c o l l e c t i on

of

i n v e r t eb r a te s

in

the Great Cave , This pape r desc r ibes

the r esu

l

t s of

th i s co l l e c t i on .

The on

l y prev i

ous

l

it

e r

a tu

r e

co

n

ce rn in

g

in

ve

r

te

br

a te

s

f r

om

the

Ni

ah

Ca v

es

o f

whic h I

am

awar e

i s t he de

s c r i p t i on by Cho

pard

19 59 ) o f the l a r ge

egg - ea t in g

c r i ck e t

, Rhaph idophora oophaga.

THE

F UN

The

bat and

s w i f t l e t

fauna

of

Niah Great Cave

i s

well known Medway , 1 9S8) .

Nests o f

the

s w i f t l e t Aerodramus

fuc iphagus

T hunberg) a r e harves ted f r om nea r - i n acces s ib l e ledges

a t

roof

l evel

by

l o ca l Ib an men via t e r

r i fy ing

po l e c

l im

bs . Gu an o sweepers co l l ec t bat

and

s w i f t l e t

droppings by

the

sack l oad for use as fe r t ili

ze

r . So e f f i c i en t a r e

they

, th a t I had

di f f iCUl ty in f ind ing any undi s tu rbed patches

of

guano . The l a r g e s ca l e r emova l

of

guano has

se r io u s ly

de

ple t

ed the guanobious fauna which

n ow

numbers

only a

f rac t ion

of

the

spec i es

found

,

fo r example, in Deer

Cave

in Mulu Chapman , 1981) . The

wa

ll dwe

ll ing

pa

r i

e t a l ) fauna

by

compar ison

, i s r i ch , comparing favou r ab l y

with

t ha t of Deer Cave . Apar t f r om bats

and

sw i f t

l e t s

,

the

cave conta ins r ep t

i l e s

I Saw a cave ra c e r s n

ake

,

Elaphe

t a en iu ra grabowski

Fi sch e r ) ,

and

the Niah cave gecko ,

Cyr todac ty lus

cave r n i co lu s I nger) and a

whi t

e f i s h i s

l o ca l l y

repor ted to

l i ve

in

a s tream

ru

n

n ing bene

a

th

the

cave

and

connected

to

it

by

a

deep

v e r t i c a l

s h a f t .

A few i n t e r e s t i n g inver tebra t e spec i

es

i n h ab i t th e cave . Many a r e

de

pe n de n t

on

guan o as

t h e i r

food supply . Three a re cave

- l

imited , and

one

of t hese , the crab Adeleana

chapmani

Hol thu i s , may

be

e n t i r e l y conf ined

to

a

few

poo l s

in the Great

Cave . The

cave f loor

in

the

more

v i s i t e d

pa

r

t s

of

the cave

i s

t ramp

l e d

har

d and f l a t a n d i s

devoid

of l i f e . I t

wou

l d

therefore

seem

d es i r ab l e

t ha t one

o r

two passages

wi th a

var

i e ty

of

microhabi t a t s and r es iden t

b a t or s w i f t l e t

popula t ions

should be pro tec ted from guano sweeping and ba r r

ed to

v i s i t o r s

in

orde r

to

conserve the

few

rema i n ing spec ies of in te r

e s t

.

A br i e f accoun t of the i n v e r t eb r a t e

fauna

i s

presented

be l ow :

PL T

YHEL MIN THE

S

TURBELLARIA :

T ri

c

l ad id

a - an undetermined white t r og l o b i t i c , and a g r ey t rog l ophi l i c

f la tworm inhab i t smal l , guano - f loored pools .

MOLLUSC

G STROPOD

:

Stylommatophora

-

two s n a i l s

,

Ass iminea

sp .

and

Lame l lax i s

c lavu l i nu s

Pot iez and Michaud) l i v e in

wet

guano .

RTHROPOD

CRUST CE :

Amphipoda - The white ,

eyeless t rog

l o b i t e Bo

g id

i e l l a Medig id i e l l a ) sa rawacens i s Stock ,

1983,

i s

found

in sha l low

, guano - f loo r

ed

pOO l S . T

his

anc ien t spec ies

pe

r haps p r e - dat ing

the break up of Pangaea) is a l so found i n the Gunung Mulu

Nat

i onal Pa r k

Chapman

, in press)

Decapoda : Gecarcinucidae - The smal l - eyed

t rog lob i t e

, Adeleana

chapmani

Hol thuis ,

1979

,

i s

found in sha l low , guano - f l oo r

ed

po o l s .

CHILOPODA :

Geophilomorpha - Orphnaeus b r e v i l a b i a t u s

Newpo

r t and il Mec i s tocepha lu s sp . inhab i t guano .

Scut igeromorpha

- A

l a rge undetermined

spec ies

hunts rhaphidopho

r id

c r i ck e t s

on the

cave

wallS and f l o o r .

R CHNID :

Scorp ionida - an undescr ibed spec ies of Lychas is presen t in

s u rp r i s i n g l y

l a rge numbers

on

the

cave

wal l s

.

Pseudoscorpionida

- Oratemnus sa igone n s i s Beier) , common in guano ,

i s

a widely d i s t r i b u t ed

spec ies also found

in

Deer

Cave

in Mulu ,

Araneae - there i s a r i ch sp ider

fauna ,

so

fa r

l a rge ly undetermined .

INSECTA :

O

r thop tera

: Rh a phidophoridae - the

l a rge

,

robust

Rhaphidophora

oophaga

Chopard

i s

common on the c

av

e wal l s .

89

8/21/2019 BCRA 11-2-1984


1

Giant

so lu t ion notches

in

c l i f f c l

ose to

Niah Cave en t rance P.Chapman)

An undescr ibed scu t iger id cent ipede

Niah

Cave

.P .

Chapman)

j

.

90

3 . Cave

scorp i

on, Guano Cave Niah Jane Foste r

8/21/2019 BCRA 11-2-1984


Dic tyopte ra

:

Bl a t t a r i a

-

the guano-burrowing t r o g l o p h i l e

P y

c n o s c e l u s

s t r i a t a

(Kirby)

i s

l o ca l l y cornmon

in the

few

untrampled guano patches .

Hemiptera

Reduvi idae - a

s lender Bagauda sp.

hunts

on the cave wal l s .

L ep id o p te r a : Tineidae

-

i ~ e a

porphyropa

Meyrick i s

common

on guano.

Coleoptera a

Melanoxan thus sp. (E la t e r idae ) and

a H i s t e r

sp.

(Hister idae)

are

common

on guano

.

Dipte ra

- only

Milichi idae

were

a t t r ac t ed to

a

l i g h t t r ap placed

in the

cen t re o f

the

cave.

Hymenoptera

-

the large s t ing ing an t ,

Pachycondy la

t r i d e n t a t a i s

a

guano burrower,

and

seve ra l wasps are

a ls o

found in

guano.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I wish to

thank

the Direc tor

and

s t a f f of the Sarawak Department of Fores ts

a t

Kuching

and

Miri ,

who

made our

v i s i t

to

Niah

poss ible ,

for

t h e i r f r iendship and

hosp i t a l i t y . Thanks a l so to Dave Brook and the

othe r

members o f the

spe l e o log ic a l

team

who

helped with

work a t

Niah.

REFERENCES

Chapman,

P. 1981.

Studies o f the

invertebrat e fauna o f

Gunung

Mulu

National Park,

with

a

discuss ion o f the poss ib le

mechanisms invo

lved

in

the evolu t ion o f t ropical cave

faunas Unpublished

M.Sc. t hes i s .

Univers i ty of

Br i s to l . 212pp

.

Chapman, P. ( in press)

The

inve r te b ra te fauna of the caves o f the Park, in

Jermy,

A.C. Kavanagh

, K.P.

(eds ) . Gunung

M

ulu National

Park , Sarawak, an account.

Sarawak

Museum

Jour.

Suppl .2 .

Chopard,

L.

1959.

Sur l e s

moeurs d u n

Rhaphidophora

cavernicole .

Ann.

de

Speleologie.

t .14,

pp.181-184.

Hol thu i s , L.B. 1979.

Cavernicoles

and t e r r e s t r i a l decapod Crus tacea

from Northern

Sarawak,

Borneo . Zoologische

Verhandl

vol .

17 3 , pp .3 -47 .

Medway,

The

Lord,

1958

.

300,000

ba ts .

Sarawak

Museum

Jour.

vo l . 3 , pp.

667

- 678.

Stock, J .H.

1983. Discovery

of a

Bogid i e l l i d

amphipod crustacean in in land

waters o f

the

East Ind ian archipe lago: Bogid ie l la Medigidiel la) sarawacensis. n.sp.

Crustaceana

vol .44 , pp.

198-204.

Wilford, G.E.

1964.

The

Geology o f Sarawak and Sabah Caves. Bul l

Geol.

Survey, Borneo

Region,

Malaysia.

vo l . 6 , 181pp.

M.S. Received 15 th January , 1984.

Phi l

Chapman,

City

Museum,

Queen s Road, Br i s to l . 8 .

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C VE SCIENCE

Transact ions o f

th e

Bri t i sh Cave Research

Associa t ion .

Vo l

11, No.2 Ju ly

1984.

AIR

TEMPERATURES AND AIR INTERCHANGES

AT

AL TAMIRA

CAVE

SPAIN

)

E. V i l l a r ,

P.

L.

Fernandez,

L.

S.

Quindos, J .

R. Solana

and

J . Soto

Abs t r ac t

Th e a r t empera tu re in a s e r i e s

of chambers

in Al tami ra C

ave

was measured in

na t u ra l

condi t ions

t ha t i s , with

t h e cave c losed

t o v i s i t o r s ) ,

over

a

per iod of

a year

and

a ha l f . The r e s u l t s p rovid e a de ta i l ed de sc r i p t i on o f

th e

t empera ture range to b e

found

with in th e Cave. By

comparing

the va lues found

with

the t empera tu re of the rock sur face , t

i s poss i b l e to pred ic t ce r t a in c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s of the a i r exchang e s which tak e place .

The a i r

temperatu re wi th in

the

Altamira Cave

i s

th e fundamental v ar i ab l e t h a t governs

n a tu r a l a i r interchanges wi thin the

Cave

i t s e l f

and between the Cave and the ex t e r i o r .

Since

convect ion

i s

the pr inc ipa l mechanism for

the

t r an sp o r t

of mat te r

wi th in a gaseous

mass, t i s a i r temperatures wi th in the Cave t h a t

determine

t he

in te r change

of

the

substances

t r anspor ted , mainly water vapour and CO .

These

substances are

two

of t he main causes of

any deter io ra t ion

processes

tha t may

a t t ack t he pa in t ings

on the

roof of t he Hal l o f Pa in t ings

th rough

t he evapora t ion and

condensa t ion of

water on the sur face o f the rock

and

the

d i s so lu t i o n

and p rec i p i t a t i o n

of ca rbona tes .

No

doubt

t h i s

i s

why

the

f i r s t

a i r

temperature

measurements

in

t he Ha l l

of

Pa in t ings

were car r i ed out

a t

a

very

ea r ly

s t age

Breui l and Obermaier , 1935), s h o r t l y

a f t e r

t he

i n i t i a l

discovery of t he

Cave.

However,

subsequent

a i r

tempera ture measurements Garcia

Lorenzo

e t

aI , 1970)

l ack suf f i c i en t

co n t in u i ty

and were

af fec ted

by the

presence

of v i s i t o r s .

In the l i gh t

of these

circumstances ,

we have ca r r i ed

out

a s e r i e s

of

a i r temperature

measurements wi th in the

Cave

i n o rde r to obta in a suf f i c i en t ly deta i l ed descr ip t ion of i t s

i n t e rn a l

microl imate .

The a i r temperature in each

of

the chambers of t he Altamira Cave must depend b as i ca l l y

on

t he sur face temperature of the

rock in

the

d i f f e r en t chambers

Andrieux, 1977;

Brunet

e t

aI , 1980), because

t i s a

cave

sys tem with

only

one opening

to

the ex te r io r , i . e . a

s t a t i c

cave where

a i r movements a re c lose

to the l imi t s

of pe r cep t ib i l i t y . The

tendency towards a

temperature equi l ib r ium between t he

mass

of

a

i r and the mass of

rock

in

each

chamber w i l l

r e su l t

in

an a i r

temperature

c lose

to the temperature

of the

rock

due

to t he great d i f f erence

of mass

between the two. Because

of

i t s g r ea t

c a l o r i f i c capac i ty , the

rock can

in te r change

a l a rge

amount

of hea t

without apprec iab ly

varying i t s own tempera ture and y e t

producing

v ar i a t i o n s in

the

a i r tempera ture as t does

so.

Consequently,

t he ex i s t ence

of

di f ferences

between

these

two

temperatures

may

be

i n t e r p r e t ed

as

being

due

to

a

f a i lu r e

to

achi

eve

a

thermal

equi l ib r ium owing

to

a i r in te r changes wi th

other chambers.

EXPERIMENTAL METHOD

The a i r

temperatures in the

d i f f e r en t chambers

of

Altamira

Cave

were measured

s imultaneously by two d i f f e r en t methods over a per iod of a year and a ha l f , between May 1980

and October 1981. The f i r s t of these methods used a s e r i e s of p la t inum r e s i s t an ce thermo-

metr ic

probes to supply e l e c t r i c a l s ignals to a char t recorde r . This method provided a

cont inuous

r ecord

of the

temperature a t four poin t s

ins ide

the Cave

and

another one

outs ide

near to the en t rance of the Cave),

but t

has

the doub1e

disadvantage

of

1 w

s e n s i t i v i t y and

a

high

degree of measurement

e r ro r ,

0.20C.

The

second method

used

convent ional thermometers with

an

accuracy

of

O.ICC

s i t e d

a t

ten d i f f e r en t poin t s i n s id e the Cave. In t h i s case , tempera ture meaSurements were ca r r i ed

out

by di r ec t readings taken between

two

and

th ree t imes

per week. Fig . 1 shows t he po in t s

in

the Cave a t which

the

temperature was

measured

by e i the r of

these methods.

EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

The

r e su l t s obta ined by the cont inuous recording method i nd ica ted no appreciable

v ar i a t i o n s in the a i r temperature a t

any

of

the

poin t s

ins ide

the Cave

measured in t h i s way,

in

response

t o d a i l y

v a r i a t i o n s

in the

ex ternal

temperature a t the en t rance of the Cave,

measured by t he Same method. More accura te ly ,

t

can be sa id t ha t no

var ia t ions

in excess

of

0 .2

o

C were recorded in e i the r the Hal l

of Pa in t ings or

the cor r idor to the Wall Chamber,

g i n s ~ dai ly

var ia t ions

o f some 4

C in t he

ex ternal

temperature . The same cause may l ead

to

some

var ia t ions

in excess of 0 .2

C in t he a i r tempera ture in the Hal l Chamber, but these

a re

Sl igh t . Such s i g n i f i can t v a r i a t i o n s

in the

temperature occur dur ing extremes

of

the

ex ternal

t empera ture ,

such as those to

be

found

on

some winter

n igh t s

o r some summer days .

Under t hese condi t ions ,

sharp

var ia t ions

may

occur

in the a i r temperature i n the Ha l l Chamber.

These

sharp

var ia t ions

in the temperature in

the Ha l l

Chamber

must

be

due

to the in f low o f

a i r from t he outs ide , al though

t h i s

does not lead to tempera ture

var ia t ions

in the deeper

chambers due

to the s lowness of the a i r c i r cu l a t i o n ins ide

the

Cave, which equa l i zes the

a i r

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and

rock temperatu

re s . When the exte rna l temperature

r e turns

to l e s s

extreme

l eve l s , the

temper a tu re in t he Hall Chamber slowly reve r t s to i t s i n i t i a l value, general ly

a f t e r

severa l

hours .

The

resu l t s obtained by the d i r ec t reading method, together with those obtained by

continuous

record ing , are summarized in Figs . 2, 3 and 4 , which show annual

v ar i

at ions in

the montly average , obtained

by averag ing

the a i r temperature values

measured a t

t he

di f feren t poin ts se lec ted with in the

Cave.

This annual

var ia t ion

i s s imi la r a t

a l l

poin t s ,

present ing bas ica l ly a s ine curve

with

a per iod

o f

one yea r . Never the less , both

the

ampl i tude and t he phase

of

t hese

temperature

var ia t ions are

di f feren t

for the var ious poin ts

measured.

The

amplitude

of the

temperature

v a r i a t i o n

i s

grea te r

in the Hal l

Chamber

than

in

any of the o the r

chambers

which l i e deeper

below

the

sur f ace .

Also, t he maximum poin t

in

the

annual tempera t u re var ia t ion occurs ea r l i e r

in

the Hal l Chamber than in any of t he other

chambers . Overa l l , the

general ch a r ac t e r i s t i c s of a i r t empera ture

var ia t ions in

the var ious

chambers

of the

Cave

co inc ide wi th those we f

ound by measuring

the

sur face

tempe ra tu re of the

rock in

the

re spec t i ve

chambers Vi l l a r

e t a l , 1983a). Bearing in mind the fa c t tha t th i s

sur f ace ~ e m p e r t u r e i s in tu rn determined by

the

annual thermal wave , t he a i r temperatu re in

each chamber must be determined by

the

sa me cause .

AIR INTERCH NGES

INSIDE

THE

C VE

The

ex i s t ing

t empera ture d i s t r i b u t io n wi th in Altamira Cave enables

c e r t a i n predic t ions

to be made

with

r espec t to a i r

in terchanges

between t he di f feren t chambers as the r e su l t of

tempera ture di f fe rences .

Air movements

between

the di f feren t

chambers of

the Cave

must

take p lace

by means of

convec t ion cur ren t s , the i n t en s i t y of which w i l l depend on di f f e r ences in

the

a i r

temperature

of these chambers and

t h e i r r e l a t i v e

depth

beneath

the sur f ace Cigna, 1968;

Wigley

and

Brown, 1976). General ly ,

a i r masses

a t some

dis tance from

t he Cave en t rance a re

cons tan t ly

a t a

lower

t empera ture

than

the

a i r to be found in

areas

c lose

to t he ent rance . As the

topography of the Cave Foes t r a , 1975) shows t h a t the

former

l i e deeper

than

the l a t t e r , no

s ig n i f i can t a i r

in terchanges should take place

between them. The Hall

of

Pain t ings and the

cor r idor

to

t he

Wall Chamber have

s imi la r t empera tures and both may exper ience a ce r t a in amount

of convect ive in terchange wi th the Hal l Chamber loca ted a t the en t rance of the

Cave.

These

occur pr inc ipa l l y when the

di f f e r ence

between

t h e i r

temperature and

tha t

of the Hal l Chamber

is a t i t s

peak

an

d consequent ly

are to be found

in

February ,

March

and Apri l

and again

in

August,

September

and October , as can

be deduced from Figs .

2, 3 and

4 . Simi la r ly

,

the

grea te r

t he

di f f e r ence

between the

a i r

t empera tures of the Hal l Chamber

and

the ex te r io r ,

the

grea te r

w i l l

be

the amount of

a i r

in terchanges

between

them. The maximum di f f e r ences between the

Hal l

Chamber and e x t e r na l

t empera tures

occur in J u l y and August and

in January

and

February .

The maximum

di f f e r ences between exte rna l

t empera tures

and

t empera tures wi th in the r e s t of

the

Cave are

to

be found in

August

and September and in January and February .

To compare these pred ic t ions

with the

a i r movements

t h a t

ac tua l ly

t ake place

ins id8 the

Cave, t

i s worth

s tudying the var ia t ions

over

the

per iod of

measurement

s in the temperature

di f f e r ences

between

the sur f ace

of

t he

rock

and

t he

a i r

in

each

chamber.

I f

the

average

monthly

values

for

both

t empera tures are compared in the four more re? resen ta t ive chambers

of

the Cave

the

Hal l Chamber,

the Ha l l

of Pa in t ings ,

the Wall Chamber and the Great Chamber),

t w i l l

be

observed t h a t no g re a t dif ferences are to

be found

in any of t hese chambers f i g s .

5 , 6, 7 and

8) . Air

in terchanges

wi th

the e x t e r i o r are minimal , as i s borne out by

the f ac t

t h a t

t he

re l

a t ive humid i ty

of

the a i r

is

close to

100

Vi l l a r e t

a l ,

1983b). The

t empera ture

di f f e r ences

shown in the

f igures

are

always

grea te r

in

December, January

and

February and

dur ing these months the

exte rna l

temperature i s

lower

than t h a t of the Cave chambers. This

i nd ica tes

the

exis tence

of convect ion

processes

wi th the ex ter io r dur ing

t hese months, a l th

ough

t should be

added

t h a t t h i s does not necessa r i l y

ind ica te

t he

exis tence

of

maximum

i n t e r -

changes during

th i s

per iod s ince the di f feren t temperature of the

in te r cha

nged a i r produces

q u an t i t a t i v e ly d i f f e r en t e f f ec t s .

A comparative s tudy

of

t he

temperature

di f f e r ences between

t he rock

and a i r in

each

chamber reveals d i f f e r i n g

values fo r each

chamber

in the

Cave.

This f ac t may

be

expla ined as a

consequence

of t he di f feren t degrees of a i r in terchange tha t

take p lace

in

each

chamber .

I f t q i s hypothes i s i s accepted, examination of Figs .

5,

6, 7 and

8 al lows one

to

conclude

the ex is tence

of a gradual se r i e s of a i r in terchanges of grea te r to

lower

magnitude

in

the Hal l Chamber, the Hal l o f Pa in t ings , the

Wall

Chamber an d the Great

Chamber,

re spec t ive l

y .

CONCLUSIONS

We

have c a r r i e d out a s tudy of a i r t empera tures in di f feren t

chambers

of the Altamira

Cave over a per iod o f

one

year

and

a

h a l f . The a i r

t empera ture was measured

by two

di f feren t

methods, not

only to

obta in any da i ly va r i a t ions but

a lso to

ensure a su f f i c i en t degree of

accuracy in the

measurements

. The r esu l t s obta ined provide a de ta i l ed

descr ip t ion

of the range

of

a i r t empera tures in the Cave, and reveal t he

absence

in most area s

of

any sharp var ia t ions

in t h i s t empera ture . They a lso reveal the exis tence

of a

b a s i c a l l y s inuso ida l

annual

var ia t ion

in a l l chambers

of

the Cave, al though

the

phase and amplitude are

di f feren t

in each one.

These

r e su l t s

are s imi la r to those

o ~ t i n e d

by s tudying annual

va r i a t i o n s in

the

rock

sur face

t empera ture in

each

chamber.

Taking

th i s

agreement

i n to account ,

predic t ions can be

made

with

r espec t

to a i r in terchanges with in the Cave i t s e l f

and

between the Cave

and

t he outs ide world.

93

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GREAT a-IAMBER ·

WALL

CHAtvlBER ·

H LL OF

EN RANC

CORRIDOR

T

THE

GREAT

CH MBER

CORRIDOR TO

THE

WALL CHAMBER

, THERMOMETRIC PROBES

X THERMOMETERS

PASSAGE

T THE

H LL OF

P INTINGS

Fig

l

Mea

su r

emen t loc at ions in

Altam i r

a Cave

2

8

2

8

ME N IR

TEMPERATURE rOC

M J

J

A

S

o

N

1 98

ENTRANCE

2 HALL CHAMBER

3 CORRIDOR

T

THE

WALL

CHAMBER

o

J

F

M

A

M

J

J

A

S

1

98

Monthly mean

a i r temperatures in ce r

ta

in chambers of Altamira Cave

94

a

8/21/2019 BCRA 11-2-1984


2

18

16

10

8

20

8

16

14

12

10

8

-

MEAN

AIR

TEMPERATURE

OC)

M

J

J

A S o

N

1 980

_

ENTRANCE

2_

PASSAGE

7 THE H LL

_ H LL O P INTINGS

D J

F

M

A M J J

A

S

1981

F ig . 3.

Monthly mean a i r t empera tures in ce r ta in chambers

of Altamira

Cave

.

MEAN AIR

I_ENTRANCE

TEMPERATURE

OC)

2_

WALL CHAMBER

3_

CORRIDOR T THE GREAT CHAMBER

_

GREAT CHAMBER

V

t\

I

\

lJ

V

V

t\

J>

I

V

/

:

. . ,

. .

\

V

V

l .I

M

J J

A

S 0

N

D

J F

M

A M

J J

A

1

980

1.981

Fig

4 Monthly mean a i r

t empera tures in

ce r ta in chambers of Altamira Cave.

95

o

J>3

0

8/21/2019 BCRA 11-2-1984


0 6

1.9=

9.

1

( c)

I

0 2

o

. _

I

I

0 2

-0 4

-0 6

1

198

le81

I

l

J

J

A

5

o

N

o

J F III

A

III

J

MONTH

L ________________________________________________

_________________ ______

0 .

( C)

Q 4

Q 2

o

.

-Q 2

-0 4

J

F i g s Annual var i a t ion o f monthly mean

temperature

di f fe rences

between the a i r and rock sur face

in

the Hall Chamber.

1980

1881

.1.

J

A

5

o

N D

J

F

t1

A

t1

F i ~ 6 Annual

var i a t ion

of monthly

mean

temperature di f fe rences

between the a i r

and

rock sur face in the

Hall

of Pain t ings

96

J

MOMTM

8/21/2019 BCRA 11-2-1984


0.4-

0 J

-C ,2

0

J

J

' ~ 8 . - 8 r

0. . ( C)

0

0 2

4

1981

It s

o

D J F

M

A

F i

g

7

Annual

var i a t ion

of monthly

mean

t empera tu re d i f f e r ences

between t he a i r and rock sur face

in

t he

\ lall

Chamber,

0

H

0.2

0.4

0.1

1MO

1881

J

MON1M

J

J A

s

o

N

D J f It

J

MONTM

Fig a

Annual var i a t ion of monthly mean t empera ture d i f f e r ences

between the

a i r and

rock

sur face

in the Grea t Chamber.

97

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These pred ic t ions

can

be based

on temperature

dif ferences between the d i f f e r e n t chambers

and

the

e x t e r i o r and can

be corrobora ted ,

a t l e a s t p a r t i a l l y , by s tudy ing

the

d i f f e rences

between the

rock

and a i r

tempera tures

in each chamber.

REFERENCES

Andrieux,

C.

1977 .

Etude

de c l ima t des

cavi t es

nature l les

dans

l es roches ca lca i res

(gro t t e de

Niaux)

. Gal l ia

Prehi s tor i e .

tome

20, fa sc .

1 .

Breui l , H Obermaier, P.

1935

.

The cave

o f Al tamira a t Sant i l lana de l

Mar.

Minis te r io de Cultura , Madrd, Spain.

Brunet ,

J . , Marsal ,

J .

Vi da l ,

P .

1980.

Lascaux,

en sont l es t ravaux

de

conservat ion

.

Archeologia.

vol .

149,

pp.36-50.

Cigna, A.A. 1968. Air c i rcu la t ion in caves . Proc . 4th . In t ernat . Congo

Speleology.

Ljubl jana ,

pp.43-49.

FOESTRA.

1975

.

PIanos

de l a

Cueva

de Altamira

Esca1a 1:50) . Patronato

de

l as Cuevas

Preh i s t o r i ca s de la

provincia de

Santander .

Spain

.

Garcfa Lorenzo, R. Ender iz ,

J .

1970. La c onservac ion de l as cuevas prehis tor icas y

l a s

pin tures

ubicadas en

e l I a s .

Proc. Symp. In t ernat .

Ar t

Rupest .

Santander ,

pp.525-557.

Vi l l a r ,

E. , Fernandez, P . L . , Quindos, L.S. , Solana ,

J.R

. Soto ,

J . 1983a.Temperature of

rock su r faces in

Altamira

Cave, Spain) .

Cave Science

Trans. Bri t i sh

Cave Research A s s o c . vol . 10,

no.3.

pp.165-l70 .

Vi l l a r ,

E. , Fernandez , P.L. , Quindos, L.S. , Solana ,

J .R.

Soto,

J . 1983b. Flujos e

mater ia en

la Cueva e Altamira.

Monograffa

No.9

, Minis te r io de

Cul tu ra .. Madrid,

Spain.

pp.45-65.

Wigley, T.M.L. Brown, M.C . 1976.

The Physics

o f Caves

ed

. T .

D.Ford

C.H.D.Cul l ingford.

Academic

in

Science o f

Speleology

Press ,

London.

pp.329-358.

Revised M.S.

Received

March

1984.

98

E.Vi l la r ,

Departamento de F s i ca Fundamental,

Facultad

de Ciencias ,

Univers idad de Santander ,

Spain.

8/21/2019 BCRA 11-2-1984


C VE SCIENCE

Transactions of the

r i t ish ave

Research Association. Vol. 21, No.2 J u 1 ~ 1984.

MBIENT TEMPER TURE V RI TIONS IN

THE I i ~ L __ ~ T l N

GS OF LT MIR C VE

DUE TO

THE PRESENCE OF

VISITORS

E.

V i l l a r ,

A. Bonet ,

B.

Diaz-Caneja , P. L. Fernandez,

I . Gut ie r r ez , L. S. Quindos, J . R. Solana

and J . So to .

Abstra

c t

Measurements were taken over a period of one year of

the

temperatur e var ia t ions

tha t occur

in

the

Hall

of

Paint ings a t

Altamira

Cave due to

the

presence

of

vis i tors .

A

theoret ical model has been developed

. tha t allows

these

temperature var iat ions

to be

determined

regardless of the number of

vis i tors

and the t ime

they remain in

the chamber.

This

model

sa t is fac tor i ly reproduces

the

experimental resul ts .

INTRODUCTION

Although t he Altamira

Cave

has aroused cons iderab le a rchaeo log ica l i n t e r e s t s ince i t s

discovery Breu i l and

Obermaier , 1935),

i n r ecen t years t h i s

i n t e r e s t

has revo lved around the

conserva t ion of i t s famous polychromat ic pa in t ings and t h e i r poss ib l e de te r io ra t ion due to

the

massive

i n f l ux o f

v i s i t o r s

to

the

Cave

Garc ia

and

Ender iz ,

1970;

Cendrero

e t

a I ,

1976;

V i l l a r , 1981;

V i l l a r

e t a I , 1983

a and

b ) .

wi th in

t h i s contex t ,

exhaust ive

s tud ies have

been made

over

the

l a s t few years of

the

microcl imat ic

V i l l a r e t a I , 1982;

V i l l a r e t

a I , 1983 c

and

d;

V i l l a r e t

a I ,

1984

a and b)

and

hydrogeologica l ' Hoyos

e t a I ,

1984)

c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s of the

Cave

when

v i s i t o r s re not

presen t , wi t h t he aim of

irst

f ind ing a

na t u r a l

bas i s of r e fe rence for t he environment

in

which

the

pa in t ings

are

loca ted and then s tudying those var ia t ions in t roduced i n t o t h i s pa t t e r n

by v i s i t o r s .

In t h i s present s tudy , we ana lyse the r e su l t s

obtained

from da ta taken over a measurement

per iod of one yea r wi t h r espec t to

ambient

temperature var ia t ions

in

the Hal l of Pain t ings

produced by

t he presence of

groups

of vary ing numbers

o f persons and

compare

them with those

obtained from a

t h e o r e t i c a l model .

THEORETICAL DESCRIPTION

We

sh a l l

assume

t h a t , due to h i s o r

her

metabolism, a person produces a hea t emiss ion of

about

82 Marion, 1979) to 116 wat t s Bar t l e t t and Braun, 1983), without

including the

approx imately

20

wat t s necessary to

vapor i ze

water in

the

lungs

and the

sk in ,

s ince t h i s

cont r ibu tes to

i nc rease the

water vapour

content

in

the

a i r , but

no t

i t s t empera ture .

In

the

condi t ions t h a t t ake p l ace

in

t he Hal l o f Pain t ings a t Altamira

Cave

moderate t empera ture ,

r e l a t i v e

humid i ty near sa t u r a t i o n , n e g l i g i b le a i r

c u r r e n t s ,

e t c . ) , we may cons ider t h a t about

70

o f t he hea t i s

emit ted by

rad ia t ion and some

30

by convec t ion ,

including in t h i s

l a s t

term t he

he a t

necessary

to

i nc rease the a i r temperature

from

t he ambient

one to about 37

0

C

in

the lungs.

This

ca l o r i f i c

energy i s d i s t r i b u

ed more o r l e s s uniformly th roughout t he Hal l of

Pain t ings , which has a

volume

o f

326

m and which, s ince

the

communicat ing door between it

and

the

access passage has

an

extremely small area in comparison wi th

the

t o t a l su r face a rea

of t he

chamber,

may, for p r ac t i ca l purposes , be taken to

be

an enc losed space

t h a t

i n t e r -

changes

hard ly any matter

or energy

with the

ou t s ide dur ing

the per iods t h a t v i s i t o r s

remain

wi th in the

chamber.

The hea t

t h a t

v i s i t o r s emi t through convec t ion appreciab ly

r a i s e s

the a i r

t empera tuEf

1

wi th in t h i s space s ince the sp e c i f i c hea t of humid a i r

a t

ambient

pressu re

i s 1.71 kJ.Rg °R

a t lS

o

C Raznjevic , 1970),

which

remains p r a c t i c a l l y cons tan t for

t he

temperature i n t e rva l s

of

i n t e r e s t .

However,

due

to

the presence

of

water

vapour

and

carbon

dioxide

in

the

a i r

of

t he chamber

which

absorb hea t and emit it in the

i n f r a r e d

band,

pa r t

of t he hea t emi t ted by

v i s i t o r s

through r a d i a t i on i s a l so used t o ra i se

the a i r

t empera ture ,

whi le t he

r e s t i s

absorbed by

the wal l s of the

chamber , which behave, to a l l i n t en t s

and purposes ,

as

a black

body.

Never the less , given t he high hea t capac i ty o f t he rock , the t empera ture of the l a t t e r

shows

p r ac t i ca l l y

no change when the number o f

people making up a

group o f

' v i s i t o r s

i s not

too

high . Furthermore, t he increase in the

entha lpy

of

the a i r ,

~ h e n the a i r temperature

i s r a i s e d ,

i s d i s s i pa t e d

on the su r face o f the chamber through convec t ion

and

rad ia t ion . Thus, it

fol lows

t h a t

the convec t ion

and r a d i a t i on

phenomena of t he a i r

in

t he chamber

w i l l play an

extremely important

ro le

wi th

respec t

to the

d i s s i pa t i on o f

t he

hea t genera ted by

v i s i t o r s

and the recovery

t ime

a f t e r

v i s i t s and,

for

t h i s

reason, they are s tud ied in somewhat

grea te r

d e ta i l below.

N TUR L CONVECTION

Given the smal l t empera ture gradien ts involved,

na t u r a l

convec t ion convec t ion in i t s

s t r i c t

sense ,

plus

conduct ion) ,

occurs

as

a laminar f low.

99

8/21/2019 BCRA 11-2-1984


The

amount of hea t t r an s f e r r ed between the a i r a

nd

the

wal l s

o f

the chamber

through

n a t u r a l convect ion

and

over a given t ime u n i t i s

suppl ied

by

the

fo l lowing equa t ion Mc Adams,

1964) :

where 60

i s the temperature di f fe rence between the sur face of the rock and the a i r , L i s t he

c h a r a c t e r i s t i c dimension

(he igh t

fo r v e r t i c a l sur faces , l eng th of

one

s ide for square

h o r i zo n ta l su

2

f aces )

and

A i s

the a r ea

of contac t . On

the

o t h e r hand, i f 60 i s expressed

in °C, A

in

m and dq/d t in

w at t s ,

c o e f f i c i e n t K

has

a va lue o f 1.47 wat t s .m-

7

/

4

oC-S/4 fo r

v e r t i c a l

sur faces ,

1.37 wat t s .m-

7

/

40

C-S

/ 4

fo r ce i l i n g

and

0 .610

wat t s .m-7/40c-S /4

f o r

t he

f l o o r .

t

w i l l

be

observed t h a t

equa t ion (1) i s

no t

g r ea t l y a f f e c t e d by the geomet r ica l form, s ince

the c h a r a c t e r i s t i c dimension i s

r a i s ed

to t he power

of

0 .2S, as a

r e s u l t

o f which t he Hal l o f

Pa in t in g s ,

d e sp i t e i t s i r r eg u l a r

shape, may,

fo r p r a c t i c a l purposes , be su b s t i t u t ed by a

p ar a l l e l ep ip ed

with an equiva len t r ec tangula r ly- shaped sur face area and the

same volume.

ABSORPTION ND EMISSION

THROUGH

RADIATION

We

have a l r eady

poin ted

out

t h a t

the

presence of water vapour

and

carbon d iox ide in

the

a i r means t h a t t he l a t t e r absorbs

he a t

and emits it in the

i n f r a r e d

band.

The h e a t

emiss ion

through r ad i a t i o n of a gas per t ime u n i t i s suppl ied by

t he

fo l lowing equa t ion Mc Adams,

1964) :

d

o

4 4

A

a

=

0 [

£G

(4

+

a

+ b -

C) / 4

(T

G

-

Tp)

2

where a

i s t h e

Stefan -Bo l t zmann s cons tan t ,

£G

i s

the

emissive

power of

t he

gas ,

TG i t s

abso lu te temperature and

Tp

t he average

absolu te

t empera tu re of t he w al l s .

Likewise , a , b and c

are

parameters t h a t depend on

t he

type of emi t t ing gas and

the

ch a rac t e r i s t i c s of

the system;

in

the case

t h a t concerns us here , they should be

obta ined

as a weighted

average

of

the

va lues corresponding to the

two

emi t t ing gases involved.

In

the

p a r t i cu l a r

case of

the

Hal l of Pa in t ings of Al t ami ra Cave, t he va lue

o f

c , obta ined

as a weighted average of t he va lues corresponding to water

vapour

and

carbon d iox ide i s

O.SO.

Simi lar ly ,

the

va lues of a and b

were

ob t a i ne d

f rom

t he

graphs

conta ined

in

Mc Adams

b i b l i og r a phy

(1964).

This

procedure i s

r a th e r imprecise but t h i s i s not too impor tan t s ince

express ion (2) i s not too s e n s i t i v e to v ar i a t i o n s in a and b , even when t hese have r e l a t i v e l y

high va lues . Thus, the

average

weighted va lues of a and b prove to be 0.42 and - 0.31

r e sp ec t iv e ly .

Equa l ly , the va lues of £G can a l so

be

obta ined from the graphs ,

in accordance

with the

temperature

and pressure of

gas

and the geometr ical

ch a rac t e r i s t i c s

of the

chamber.

The

va lue ob ta ined in t h i s

way

f o r the mixture

of

water vapour and

carbon

dioxide

to

be found in the Ha l l o f Pa in t ings

proved to be 0 .22 .

In

f ac t ,

the va lues for £G

depend,

as noted above,

on t he pa r t i a l pressure of the gas and

i t s temperature;

however,

w ~ t i n

the

f l u c tu a t i o n s

o f

t hese two v ar i ab l e s normal ly observed

i ns ide the Ha l l o f

Pa in t in g s , t hese

v a r i a t i o n s of £G

are

ext remely

smal l ,

ranging between 0

.21

and 0.23 .

Onthe

othe r hand, s ince

these gases a re s imul taneous ly presen t

in the

a i r

of t he

chamber,

t he

t o t a l

emiss ive

power

drops s l i g h t l y s ince

each gas

p a r t i a l l y absorbs some of

the

r ad i a t i o n

e m i t t e d

by

the

o th e r .

Never the les s ,

in the t empera tu re and pressure

c ond i t i ons

t h a t concern

us here , the necessa ry

c o r r e c t i o n i s abso lu te ly n eg l ig ib l e s i n c e i t a f f ec t s only the t h i rd dec imal place . We have

t h e r e f o r e t aken

t he

average va lue to

be

as

fo l lows:

£G = 0.22 , Which,

fo r p rac t i ca l

purposes ,

we

can

assume

to

be cons tan t .

TEMPERATURE VARIATIONS

We have

a l r eady

mentioned t h a t some

of

t he

hea t emi t ted by v i s i t o r s

i s used to i nc rease

the entha lpy

of

t he a i r , whi le some i s

r ad i a t ed d i r ec t l y onto

the wa l l s

of

the chamber. At

t he

same

t ime , the

excess

entha lpy of the a i r i s

d i s s ip a t ed

on t he

wal l s th rough

both

convec t ion

and

r ad i a t i o n . I n i t i a l l y ,

the

ba lance

between the

produc t ion

and

l o s s

of c a l o r i f i c

energy dur ing v i s i t i n g per iods favours produc t ion , as a r e s u l t

o f

which a r i s e in t empera tu re

occur s ,

al though i f t he v i s i t i s s u f f i c i e n t l y prolonged ,

an

equi l ib r ium

must

f i n a l l y be

reached between product ion

and

l o s s , t he average t empera tu re then remaining c o n s t a n t .

At

each

moment,

the equa t ion

fo r

the energy balance may

be

exp ressed

as

fo l lows:

mc

dT

P d t

= n

dH

d t

KA

LO .

2S

+

A

o £G . 4 + a + b -

c

T3

(T

- T )

P G P

3

where

m

i s the a i r

mass and c

i s t he s p e c i f i c hea t ,

n

the number of v i s i t o r s

and

dH/d t

t he

inc rease in

the en tha lpy of tRe

a i r per t ime u n i t

due

to

the

presence

o f

one

4

v i s i t o r ;

the

remaining

q u a n t i t i e s have b

3

en def ined

above.

On the othe r hand, the

t e rm

TG -

~ has been

has been su b s t i t u t ed by 4Tp (T

G

- Tp) due

to

the smal l temperature grad ien t involved .

To

determine

the

equi l ib r ium

temperature , it i s SUff ic ien t to s e t the

l e f t - h an d

s i d e of

equa t ion (3) to zero and determine the corresponding va lue

of

TG In p r ac t i ce , the dura t ion

of v i s i t s i s

not ,

as a

ru l e ,

SUff ic i en t to

al low

t h i s e qu i l i b r i um to be r eached . To

determine

t h e

a i r

t empera tu re

a t

any

moment

dur ing the

course of

a

v i s i t ,

equa t ion (3)

has to

be so lved

numerical lY·

Simia r ly , to

e va l ua t e

t he

t empera tu re

a t

any

t ime

a f t e r

a v i s i t has

t aken

place ,

one

has

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8/21/2019 BCRA 11-2-1984


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8/21/2019 BCRA 11-2-1984


to make t he

f i r s t te rm

o f

the

second member of equat ion (3) equal

to

zero and i n t eg ra te .

The r e su l t

i s as fol lowsi

t = 4 m C P ) ~ n ~ )0 .25 _ I n B ( t>T)O.25 + CTp )]

CT

3

[

t

T B (t>T

)O.25+

T

3

p max max p

4

where

B = K.A/ LO.

25

, C = A (4 + a + b - c ) ; t i s the

t ime

e lapsed s i n ce the end of the

v i s i t , T i s the increase 1n temperature a t the end of t he v i s i t and T i s the remaining

increase ~ X t e m p e r a t u r e a t

moment

t

The

remaining

magnitudes have a l ready been

def ined

above.

The

t ime requ i red

fo r the a i r

temperature t o r e tu rn to i t s former l eve l

pr io r

to

a

v i s i t

i s

obta ined

from

equa t ion

(4)

by

merely making T O.

However,

i f t h i s

cond i t ion

i s

app l i ed ,

the t ime would be

i n f i n i t e

and, fo r t h i s reason, we make T = O .l

o

C s ince th i s i s the

exper imenta l measurement e r

ro r .

EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

AND

DISCUSSION

Temperature

v a r i a t i o n s in the Hall o f Pain t ings.

due

to the

presence

o f v i s i t o r s were

measured

by means of a

s e r i e s

of thermocouples loca ted a t d i f fe re n t po in t s and l eve ls .

Measurements were taken every two minutes us ing a data logger

dur ing

and af te r

v i s i t s

un t i l

the tempera tures

r e tu rned to

t h e i r m i t i a l

l eve l s

p r io r

to

the en t rance o f v i s i t o r s . These

da ta

were

used

to

d et

ermine

the average

temperature

as a func t ion o f t ime from the commencement

of a v i s i t u n t i l such t ime a s the

temperature

re tu rned to i t s

i n i t i a l

l eve l af te r the end of the

v i s i t , th i s moment being def ined as the po in t when

a l l

the probes

beg in

to sys temat ica l ly record

the

t empera tu re

t h a t prevai led before

the

v i s i t .

The measurements were taken throughout the course of one

year ,

with

many

groups o f

v i s i t o r s ,

cons i s t ing

o f a

va r i ab le

number

of

persons, of

which the most

i n t e r e s t i n g are l

groups

of

5

v i s i t o r s (between one and

four consecut ive

groups) . groups

o f

10

(one o r two

consecut ive groups) ,

groups

o f 15 and groups o f

20.

in add i t ion ,

each

group was accompanied

by

a

guide .

Figs .

1

to

8 show

the curves

fo r

va r i a t ions in

the

average tempera ture of the a i r

in the

Hal l o f Pain t ings during v i s i t s (ascending

curve)

and a f t e r v i s i t s (descending curve) , fo r the

d i f fe re n t types of

groups and

it w i l l be observed tha t ,

as

a

ru l e ,

the agreement between the

t he o re t i c a l

and

exper imenta l r esu l t s is very sa t i s fa c to ry . On the ascending curve , the

exper imenta l po in t s genera l ly co inc ide ve ry we l l wi th the curve

cor responding

to

an emiss ion

of 116

wat t s

per person. Never the l e ss on the downward curve ,

the

exper imenta l po in t s f requen t ly

l i e

below th i s t he o re t i c a l curve . This i s because the v i s i t o r s have a

tendency

to concen t ra te

in c e r t a in places o f

spec ia l

i n t e r e s t to t o u r i s t s , thereby producing l oca l

t empera tu re

i n c rea s e s wel l above the average . Consequent ly , the hea t i s not d i s t r i bu t e d uniformly as

p red i c t ed by t he theory and, a t the end of the

v i s i t s ,

the warm areas lo se the i r h ea t th rough

convec t ion

and r ad ia t ion

more

q u i ~ l y

with the r esu l t tha t , ove ra l l , the average

t empera tu re

f a l l s

more

r ap id ly

than

forecas t

by the theory. This f a c t i s pa r t i c u l a r ly notab le in the case

of small

groups ,

as i s

na tu ra l ,

s ince ,

when l a rg e

groups

o f persons a re

concerned ,

t h e i r

i nc reased s i z e causes the hea t

to

be d i s t r i bu t e d

more

uniformly.

It w i l l

a l so be noted

t ha t consecut ive

groups

wi th a small number

of

v i s i t o r s Figs . 5 to

8)

cause

an

increase in the

a i r t empera tu re cons ide rab ly l e s s than a

s ing le group

wi th

the

same number of v i s i t o r s Figs . 2

to 4) .

Notable v a r i a t i o n s

in

ambient temperature may cause

apprec i ab le v a r i a t i o n s

in

rock t empera tu re as

has

been expe r imenta l ly v e r i f i e d by

meanS

o f

r ad ia t ion thermometer measurements). These , toge ther

wi th

su rface

mois ture va r i a t i ons ,

may

l ead

t o co n t r ac t i o n and

expansion

o f

pain ted

surfaces wi th r e su l t a n t

loosening

o f

t he

s u r face

layers and consequent

r i s k o f damage to

the

pa in t ings

(Cendrero e t

a l ,

1976) . Thus

fo r a

given

number

of v i s i t o r s , consecut ive groups

wi th

smal l numbers should be

p re fe r r ed i n s t ead

o f l a rge r

groups

more

spaced in

t ime,

in

orde r

to ensure

a b e t t e r conse rva t ion o f polychromed

su r f ace s .

In summary,

the tempera ture v a r i a t i o n s

t ha t t ake p l ace in t he Ha l l

o f Pain t ings

o f

Al tamira Cave

due

to the

presence

of

v i s i t o r s

can be accura te ly descr ibed

by

means

of

the

t he o re t i c a l model

used,

which

can

be app l i ed

to

a l l formats of v i s i t s . It i s

concluded

t ha t

ambient

thermal

v a r i a t i o n s

in the

chamber

are

fundamental ly dete rmined

by

convect ion

and

r ad ia t ion processes , the l a t t e r being the most impor tant in quan t i t a t ive

te rms,

whi le a

preponderant ro le i s played by the

presence

of

carbon

dioxide and

wate r

vapour in

apprec i ab le

concen t ra t ions

in the a i ra f the chamber,

which,

due

to

i t s form, i s t he rma l ly ve ry se ns i t i ve

to the

presence

of v i s i t o r s .

REFERENCES

Bartlet t , A Braun, T. 1983. Death in a

hot tube:

The

physics

of heat stroke. Amer. J . Phys.

vol.

51,

pp.127-l40

Breuil,

H Obermaier

,

P. 1935. The cave o f Altamira t

Santil lana del

Mar

Ministerio de

Cultura,

Espana.

Cendrero, A., Noya, J . Valle, P.

1976.

Estudio

de la

roca soporte de

las

pinturas

rupestres

de la Cueva de Altamira. Zephyrus .XVIII-XIX,

pp.5-lS.

Garcia

Lorenzo,

R

Enderiz,

J .

1970.

La

conservaci6n de

la

cuevas

prehist6ricas

y

las

pinturas

u b i c d ~

en

elIas. Proc. Symp. Internat. of Art Rupest. Santander, pp.S2S-S57.

Hoyos, M., Bustillo, A., Garcfa, A.,Mart n,

C., Ortfz,

R., Suazo, C. Estetan, A 1984. Caracter

i s t ic s geol6gico-carsticas de la cueva de Altamira Santillana del Mar). (in

press)

103

8/21/2019 BCRA 11-2-1984


Marion, J .B. , 1979.

McAdams,

V.H. 1964.

General

Physics with Bioscience

Essays

Transmission

de

la chaleur Dunod.

John Wiley

Sons.

Raznjevic, K 1970.

Tables

e t

diagrames

thermodinamiques Eyrolles .

Vil lar ,

E. 1981.

Proyecto c1enti f ico tecnico

elaborado para

la conservacion

de

las

pinturas de

la cueva

de Altamira Monografia

no.S. Ministerio

de

Cultura. Espana.pp.S-14.

Villar , E., Bonet, A., Diaz Caneja, B., Fernandez,

P.L.,

Gutierrez,

I . ,

Quind6s, L.S.,

Solana, J.R.

Soto, J . 1982. Microclima de

la Sala

de Policromos de la cueva de Altamira. Rev de

la

R A C E F N

vol. LXXVI,

pp.686

-

692.

Vil lar ,

E.,

FernAndez,

P.L.,

Quind6s, L.S., Solana,

J .R.

Soto, J . 1983

a.

Caracterizacion

cromatica

del techo policromado de

la

sala de pinturas de Ie

cueva

de Altamira Monografia no.9.

Ministerio

de

Cultura,

Espana.

pp.7-2S.

Vil lar , E., F e r n ~ n d e z P.L., Plaza, L.,

Quind6s, L.S.,

Solana, J .R. Soto,

J .

1983 b.

Evolucion

del color de

la

cierva

pintada

en

la cueva

de Altamira Monografia no. 9, . pp.27-4 3 .

Vil lar , E., Fernandez,

P.L.,

Quind6s, L.S.,

Solana, J.R. Soto, J .

1983 c.

Temperature

of rock

surfaces in Altamira cave (Spain). Trans

Bri t

Cave Res Assoc Vol. 10, pp.16S-170.

Vil lar , E.,

Fernandez, P.L., Quind6s, L.S.,

Solana, J .R. Soto, J . 1984

a .

Air temperature and

a i r

interchanges

in

the Altamira cave.

(Spain). Trans Bri t Cave Res Assoc Vol. 11, No.2 .

Vi l lar , E., Bonet,

A.,

D az-Caneja, B., Fernandez, P.L.,

Gutierrez, I . , Quind6s, L.S., Solana, J.R.

Soto, J . (1984 b). Le humedad natural en la cueva

de

Altamira (in press .

Revised

S

received 13th April 1984.

104

E. Vil lar

Departamento

de

Fis ica

Fundamental,

Facultad

de Ciencias,

Universidad

de

Santander,

Santander, Spain.

8/21/2019 BCRA 11-2-1984


C VE SCIENCE

Transact ions

Brit ish Cave

Research Association. volume

11

no.2 July 1984.

LIMESTONE

ND

VOLC NIC

C VES

OF

THE FIJI

ISL NDS

by the l a t e Tim Gilber t

cont r ibu ted by

Mrs J .Gi lber t )

Abstract

The small

limestone areas

in

the Fi j i Islands

contain many caves, one

with

a

surveyed

length

of

lSOOm.

There are

lava

caves in

the

south of Taveuni Island,

the most

extensive being 920

m

long.

GEOGR PHY

The F i j i

Group

i s an a rch ipe lago

of 320

i s l ands , s i tua t ed in the South Pac i f i c Ocean

about

1800 km nor th of New Zealand Fig . 1) . The l a rg e r iS lands are

rugged

and

h i l l y ,

r i s i n g to 1200 m in p laces ,

wi th

minimal co as t a l

lowland

s t r i p s .

The

popula t ion of

647,000

people cons i s t s mainly o f n a t iv e Fi j i an

i s l anders

and four th

genera t ion

Indian immigrants.

These f r i end ly people l i ve in towns and vi l l ages on the

coas t ,

and

along

the main r i v e r

v a l l ey s .

The c l ima te

i s

mild and equable , the

normal

temperature

range

being 16 -

32

0

C.

The

S.E. t radewinds

br ing

a r a i n f a l l o f

about

3000 mm

per

year

to

t he

windWard

areas of the t h r ee

l a r ge s t

i s l ands . These have

a

natura l

cover ing of t r o p i ca l r a in f o r e s t . The smal l e r

i s l ands ,

and a

l so the

leeward s ides o f

the

l a rg e r iS lands ,

have

a r a i n f a l l of 1800 mm per year . The

natura l

v eg e t a t i o n

i s

normally

t r o p i ca l

grass lands ,

a l though l imestone

areas a re

densely

fo res ted .

V i t i Levu I s l an d i s c i r cu i t ed by co as t a l roads: Queens Road

around

the south and

west

coas t s ,

and Kings Road around

the nor th and

eas t

coas t s .

A few roads penet ra te i n l and ,

alon g the main r ive r va l l eys .

Away from

these

roadS,

t r ave l

i s

on

foo t , with

a guide.

There

are

no

roads in

the

cen t r a l

highland area , some 3000

km

2

. Trave l

to

the

other

inhab i ted

i s l an d s

i s

by the small i n t e r - i s l and

t r ad ing

vesse ls .

There

a

re a l so r egu lar

f l igh t s to Vanua Levu, Taveuni , and Lakeba I s l ands .

V i t i Levu

I s l an d

has

a

wide range

of rock t ypes ,

plu ton ic , volcan ic ,

sedimentary,

and

metamorphic.

Many of the sedimentary and

f ragmental

volcan ic

sequences have interbedded

l imestone uni t s ,

which

commonly conta in

cora l . The iS lands of the Lau

Group a re

mainly s in g l e

volcanoes, most of them

wi th over ly ing

l imestone.

Some

i s l ands , mainly in the south

of the

group,

a re wholly l imestone, the presumed volcan ic ed i f i c e

below

not

yet

exposed

by eros ion .

Vanua

Levu,

and most o f

the o ther i s lands of

F i j i ,

are mainly vOlcanic and

l imes tone

i s

ra re .

C VE EXPLORATION

The smal l

s ca t t e r ed

l imes tone ou tc rops of

the main

iS land, V i t i

Levu,

conta in a sur pr i s

i ng ly

l a rge

number of

caves.

The en t rances

are of ten in uncu l t iva ted

l and be longing

to

a

nearby F i j i a n

vi l l age .

Most

of

the caves desc r ibed have been s y s temat ica l ly explored and

surveyed

by

the author now deceased) while he was res iden t in Suva between 196

9

and 1973.

Some caves were explored so lo , and some

had

probably

not been en tered before , i . e . Udi t Cave

and Quaia

Cave.

On one occasion the au thor , accompanied by

an Ind ian

s tuden t , spen t t h r ee

days in the

bush

w h i l s t

explor ing a

remote

l imestone a rea

in

Easte rn Vi tu

Levu, s leep ing in

a

cave

a t

nigh t .

The only

other

recorded

cave explora t ions in

V i t i

Levu

a re

those

of

caves

in t he S iga toka Va l ley by Watling and Per n e t t a 1977) , Sawyer and

Andrews

1901) and Rodda,

a

res iden t geo log i s t .

F i j i a n vi l l age r s are f r equen t ly unwil l ing to

en ter

caves , because

of

t h e i r

t r a d i t i o n a l

b e l i e f s .

The account

of

caves

in

the

Lau Group of I s lands i s

ex t rac ted

from descr ip t ions o f

incomple te explora t ions by Sawyer and

Andrews

1901) and Ladd and Hoffmeister 1945) .

There

may

be

undiscovered volcan ic caveS in the uninhabi ted S.E. s ide of Taveuni

I s l and ,

in

add i t ion to those in southe rn Taveuni , which are descr ibed fo r the

f i r s t

t ime in th i s a r t i c l e .

C VE BIOLOGY

Caves

provide

pro tec t ion and food for

a

va r i e ty

of

c rea t u re s .

Most

not iceab le to the

nose as wel l as

to

the

eye

are the ba t s .

Near ly

every

cave

desc r ibed conta ins small

insec t ivorous bat s

the Sheath Tai led Bat , Embal lanura

s e mic a u d a ta .

The l a r g e f r u i t bats

do

not l i ve

in caves, unl ike the

smal l e r Lony

r a i l ed F r u i t Bat , Notop ter i s macdonald i ,

a t

Saweni Cave.

Guano

i s t h i ck on the

f loor

of

many

caves and

makes

a qooa r e r t i l 1 ~ e r

A small bi r d ,

the White Rumped

Swi f t l e t (

C o l l o c a l l i a s p o d io p y g ia uses

a

s imi la r

echo

sounding

method

to ba t s to

f ind i t s way

about in the

dark. t bui lds i t s n es t s on

the cave

wallS , and i s reputed

to

a l igh t nowhere

e l se .

Spide rs and cockroaches are found

on

t he Walls .

Spide rs

found

70 m beyond

the

en t rance in

Saweni Cave,

Vi t i

Levu Lis land , have been

i den t i f i ed

as members o f

the

genus L o x o s c e l e s . This genus i s known

to

be ind igenous to t he Afr ican and

American t rop ics Watling and Pern e t t a ,

1977).

In the st reams, prawns, c rabs and ee l s are

eas i ly v i s i b l e . The caves in Namuka-i-Lau and

Vatu1e1e

I s lands are famous for

t he i r

red

prawns. Many animals a re only temporary and i nvolun ta ry

cave dwellers . Toads,

fo r ins tance ,

are

of ten washed in by f loods .

lOS

8/21/2019 BCRA 11-2-1984


f o0

o

F

J

S

L

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S

d

a

w

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;

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8/21/2019 BCRA 11-2-1984


o Nakorowaiwal

W ILOTU RE

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O.

km

. 1 kru .

I I

FIGURE

W IM C

C VE

se R A GRADE

3

Ri f t

o

metres

F GURE 3

1 7

25

•

Cave

entrance

• Vi l lage

-Y -R ive r or creek

_ _ _ Road

or

path

i mestone

Entrance

8/21/2019 BCRA 11-2-1984


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r

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P

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c

o

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8/21/2019 BCRA 11-2-1984


It

i s

not

known i f

any

s o l e l y cave-dwel l ing spec ies l i v e in F i j i , but

t h e r e are repor t s

of

cave a d a p t a t i o n s . Prawns

of a new spec ies

and

genus ( oc r is l uensis ,

with

modif ied

e yes t a lk s

and

ocula r pigment reduced ,

are

r eco rded from Waqava I s l an d in

the Lau Group

(Edmonson, 1935)

White

sp i d e r s

a re repor ted from Vol ivo l i

Cave

in

V i t i

Levu (Sawyer

and

Andrews, 1901).

C VES OF WESTERN ND NORTHERN VITI LEVU ND ADJACENT ISLANDS

a)

Western

and

Nor thern

V i t i Levu .

There i s very little l imes tone

in

t h i s area ; what t h e r e i s occu rs most ly as t h in

e longa te l en ses . The patches of l imes tone southeas t of Nadi , of Eocene and poss ib ly

Oligocene

age, are

t he

o ld es t

fo s s i l i f e ro u s

rocks

known in

Fiji.

Bartholomew

(1960)

s t a t e d t h a t

Caves

and

natura l

arches occu r a t a number of l o c a l i t i e s

.... There

a re a few

s in k

holes

in

p l a c e s

bu t gener

a

l l y these

a re

smal l ;

however,

t h e r e i s almost

a c l a s s i c

example

in

the

l imes tone

bes ide

t he

t r a c k l ead ing

to Koromba summit .

(17

krn

so u t h e a s t

of

Nadi ) .

Bartholomew's Pla t e VI

shows

a cave in

t he

maSS

of l imestone

3

krn southeas t o f

Lolobalavu

t r igonomet r i ca l po in t

(Nadi) .

b) YaSawa I s l an d s .

There i s a

well-known

cave on Sawa- i -Lau,

an

i s l an d j u s t o f f

the

southern coas t

of

Yasawa. The cave ,

which i s

r eg u la r ly

v i s i t e d by t o u r i s t s ,

can be en te red

in

two

ways; from

t h e top ,

by walking

around

t he c l i f f - f a c e ,

o r

by

d i v i ng

th rough a

submerged

opening a t sea

l ev e l . The l i g h t

from t h i s

opening i s v i s i b l e i n s i d e the

main

chamber.

There are

some

pa in t ings

on the

wal l which have not been

s a t i s f a c t o r i l y

i n t e r p r e t

ed . Der r ick

(1965)

repor ted a legend about a young c h i e f who r eg u la r ly

dived

th rough wi th food f o r h i s illicit

be t ro thed , who

was

hid ing i n s id e .

C VES OF EASTERN VITI LEVU

There

a re

some

smal l

s ca t t e r ed

outc rops of l imes tone

in

the a rea

around Wai lotua

V i l l a g e

in Easte rn V i t i Levu (F ig . 2 ) . The t e r r a i n i s h i l l y and dense ly f o r e s t ed ,

t r av e l

i s d i f f i c u l t

away

from the roads . Caves ne a r t he

v i l l ag es

of

Wai lo tua ,

Nasau, Drekeniwai , and Nakorowaiwai

were explored . The more

remote

l imes tone ou tc rops were not v i s i t e d . In r e l a t i o n to Wailotua

Vi l l a g e t hese are s i t u a t e d a t : 2

krn

wes t : 15 krn wes t a t Korosu l i V i l l a g e and 9 krn eas t - n o r th

e a s t .

a) Nakorowaiwai.

The a rea near t he abandoned

v i l l ag e

o f Nakorowaiwai i s t y p i ca l j agged and dense ly fo res t ed

l imes tone count ry . It i s

e s s e n t i a l to ge t a

guide . A t

one

p o i n t t h e

Waivisa

Creek (F ig . 2)

f lows th rough a l a r g e

tunne l

about

30

m

long.

A

few metres downstream from t he tunne l

a

t r i b u t a r y en te r s Waivisa on t he

l e f t .

This l eads a f t e r

about 100

m

to

a

cave

en t rance .

This

can be

pene t ra t ed for

about 60 m to

the foo t o f an

underground w at e r f a l l about 20 m

high , w i th

shee r

wa l l s

and a s t r o n g draught . Upstream of t he tunne l

in Waivisa Creek

t h e r e i s a

shor t

h i gh

cave,

beyond which t he source of the s t r eam i s r evea led - a c i r c u l a r pool about

20

m

in

diameter surrounded by

wooded s l o p e s .

In the main v a l l e y above the pool , t he re a re a number o f depress ions in the

a l l u v i a l

f l o o r ,

some

with smal l s treams f lowing

along

the

bot tom.

Eas t o f

Korobalavu Peak

and

n e a r

a

manganese

d e p o s i t ,

i s

an

impress ive rift in

the

f ace

of

a cliff.

A t

one poin t

access can

be ga ined to

about 100 m

of

smal l cave passage wi th a smal l impenet rab le

s tream. Fur the r

along

the

su r f ace ,

a rope

i s necessa ry

to descend to a chamber.

From

t he

chamber

a

number of holes

in

the

f loor

drop

down

i n to a nar row rift wi th a

s t r eam.

P o ss i b l y

the s t r eam i s t he one emerging in

t he

w at e r f a l l

descr ibed e a r l i e r , ne a r

WaiviS3.

These a re

t h e only

caves so f a r en te red , in t h i s

a rea ,

but

the

v i l l ag e r s have repor ted

many o th e r s .

b) Wai lo tua .

The cave

e n t r a nc e (F ig . 4) i s

s i t u a t ed nex t to Wailotua V i l l ag e Number

1 ,

about 15 krn

west

of Korovou (Tai levu) on Kings Road. The v i l l ag e r s w i l l t ake v i s i t o r s

to

the main

chamber fo r

a charge . The approach i s decora ted

wi th g inger

p l an t s ,

and t h e r e i s a

pa t h

from t he main

e n t r a nc e

to t he main chamber.

There

i s a dry mud f l o o r but it i s

c l ea r

t h a t a t one t ime water

used

to

flow

th rough

t hese passages . The

canyon

passage i s a t a

lower l ev e l ,

its he igh t

v a r i e s between 3 m

and

15 m. There a re some f lowstone format ions in

the en t r ance passages .

The

foo tpa th

l eads

to

t he v as t main

chamber, where

f i r e s

a re sometimes

lit in the

cen t r e

of

t h e

f l a t

t e r r a c e . Below

t he

t e r r a c e ,

which

i s

f loored

with ha rd

mud,

the

chamber

f l o o r

i s

a jumble

of

l a r g e boulde rs .

Beyond

t he

chamber

l i e s t he eas t e r n en t rance ,

where

a

s t r eam

f lows

i n to t h e cave .

There a re some high l ev e l passages

l e a d i ng

o f f

t he

main chamber,

but these

cou ld

no t

be

surveyed

because t he

bamboo

l adder l ead ing to them was dangerously

ro t t en .

The main

s t r eam

f lows i n to a passage in t he s id e of t h e main chamber, down an ex c i t i n g

s e r i e s

of cascades and

w at e r f a l l s .

The deepes t i s about 6 m, and no

ropes

are needed by an a g i l e per son . The s t r eam

disappear s

under

t he

passage w al l ,

and beyond t h i s t he

passage i s

dry , though it e v i d e n t l y

ac t s as an over f low in f lood condi t ions because t h e r e are

f r esh

grave l

banks,

waterworn

rocks ,

and s t i c k s in the

roof .

The dry

passage

cont inues ,

most ly

j u s t s u f f i c i e n t l y h igh and wide

to

walk th rough ,

and

opens dramat i ca l ly in to

the

wal l

o f

a

l a rge

chamber. A mud s lope l eads down

to

a s t r eam, which

disappear s

under

the

rock a t the f a r end.

It

i s presumed to re-emerge

100 m

away

a t the same l ev e l , a t

some

spr ings a t t he sharp bend in

Wailo tua Creek

(Fig. 2) ,

where some water

f lows

th rough a

p i l e o f

boulder s on

the

r i v e r bank, and cold wa te r can

be

f e l t wel l ing up

from the

r i v e r bed . There

i s a l so

p a r t of t he lower strearnway acces s ib l e , and

a high l ev e l p a r a l l e l r o u t e .

109

8/21/2019 BCRA 11-2-1984


Q UI C VE

BCRA

GRADE

3C

PLAN

N

o

metres 1

______ ____ 4 ______

n t ra n ce

Cana

I

=

LEV T ION

LOCATION

FIGURE 5

)

Wainibuku

SUV RE

Kalabo

\

• Tamavua

FIGURE 6

FIGURE 7

\.0. L imes tone

5

l e

o

metres

I

55 0

8/21/2019 BCRA 11-2-1984


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F

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U

R

E

m

e

e

C

a

p

s

f

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o

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o

m

a

e

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n

o

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e

o

3

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o

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s

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8/21/2019 BCRA 11-2-1984


There

i s p o t en t i a l fo r fu r

t h e r explo r a t i o n

in

t h i s cave.

Su

rve

yed l eng th -

about

1500 m ( the

l onges t

in

F i j i ) .

c) Nasau.

The a rea

of l imestone in

which

Wailotua Cave

i s

formed ex tends 8 kID eas twards ,

and

con ta ins seve ra l o the r caves . Two were v i s i t e d a t Nasau Vi l l age

(F ig .

3) . These two caves

found to

be

l inked

inside)

appear

to

be

old

sp r ings .

The water t ab l e

has

dropped below

t he

l eve l

of the caves , and below the s t ream bed they face

onto Waimaca means

dry

s t ream )

.

It i s c l e a r t h a t water r i s e s

cons ide rab ly in

the

caves

in

ra iny cond i t ions ,

but

t he re i s no

s t ream course in them. The en t rance chambers

have

much guano on the

f loor

. The f l u t ed

columns

around

the en t rance a re impres s ive .

Near

the end

of

the caves , a t i g h t

squeeze

gives access to a

R i f t Passage,

con ta in ing many s t a l a c t i t e columns . Length 100 m.

CAVES OF SOUTH EASTERN VITI

LEVU

Within a 15

kID rad ius

of Suva, t he c a p i t a l of the F i j i Is lands , there

a re

a number

of

very smal l areaS o f exposed l imestone (F ig . 6 . Th i s i s a t h i n band o f

r ee f

l imestone which

occurs in the Suva Marl

Ser ie s .

Most

of

the land i n t he a rea i s e i t he r c u l t i v a t ed or b u i l t -

on. There

are caves over 300 m long near Quai a Vi l l age , and

n e a r

Wainibuku

Creek,

i n add i t ion

to

t he

many

smal le r

caves

in the a

r ea .

d) Quaia .

~ t r e m runs onto

the

Lami l imestone about 2 kID

nor th

of t he cave

en t rance pass ing

th rough seve ra l shor t shal low caves .

It

then cu t s a deep

t rench and goes

permanently

under

ground (F ig. 5) . It i s c l e a r

t ha t

the s t ream once flowed on the

su rface ,

a t the l eve l which

now

forms

the

top of t he

en t rance

rift. A 10 m l adder i s needed to descend

the

rift and

beyond i s a

se r i e s

o f

poolS

and cascad es (P la t e

1) .

Shaf t s o f day l igh t a re

still

v i s i b l e ,

coming from the sur face and

cas t i n g

complex shadows

over

the shee r wal l s of the rift.

Beyond the day l igh t

zone , the

s t ream

fo l lows

a l ev e l meandering

rift

passage, decora ted with

some

c a l c i t e

format ions

.

Fur the r

on,

t he

water

i s

deeper

and swimming i s

necessa ry .

The

cave

ends

in a

sump

with a

smal l muddy

chamber

above

it. The wate r resurges a t a

row

o f

smal l

spr ings

a t

the

base o f

t he

r idge behind

Quaia Vi l l age

(Fig . 5) . According to

the survey, the

sump

a t

t he end of

the

cave comes very c lose

to

one

of the spr ings .

It

may

be p oss i b l e

to

c rea t e a bot tom

en t rance

by digging. The

cave,

365 m long , i s formed along a f a u l t l i ne .

e)

Other

Caves

in

Lami and Suva.

1) A

smal l

cave occurs on Cave

I s l an d

Only 15 m long ,

it

zigzags from

s ide

to s ide .

2 Two smal l

caves

occur on the shore

a t

Lami.

3 There i s a smal l cave of f Edinburgh Drive

in

Suva,

ne

a r

the WM Hospi t a l .

4)

Nauluvatu;

a

cave

a t l e a s t

50

m

long o ccu r s

in

the lower p a r t

of

the v i l l a g e .

The

en t rance

i s used as a

rubb ish

dump,

hinder ing

access . The cave

con ta ins seve ra l

l a rge dry

chambers.

5) A smal l cave occurs in the c l i f f s on t he

eas t

s ide of Tamavua

River .

6 There

i s an

underground cavern near

Waiqanake

Vi l l age

(F ig .

6).

f )

Kalabo .

A

s t ream

has

cut

a massive

tunne l

r igh t

through

t he

r idge

on

which Kalabo

Vi l l age

i s

s i t u a t e d F ig

.

7). It cu ts th rough

the whole of t h i s i s o l a t ed

l imestone band,

f o r the

f l a t

roof i s marl ,

and

in t he lower h a l f o f

the

cave the s t ream flows through ba sa l t .

The

passage

i s

most ly 5 m

wide and

15 m

high , fo r t he

e n t i r e l eng th

of

150 m.

g) Wainibuku Creek Area .

This l imestone

a rea i s

about 11 kID

n o r t h e a s t

o f Suva

(F ig.

6) .

The

l imes tone

i s

roughly

hor izon ta l

w i t h

a

maximum

th ickness of 25 to 30 m, wedging out to the sou th ,

so

t ha t it i s

absen t

on

Pr i t am

Singh

Road (F ig. 8)

.

It i s exposed i n t he face of a

prominent

escarpment ,

in

some

enc losed depres s ions

in

the h ighe r ground, and in

f l a t t e r

areaS fu r t h e r nor th .

It

i s

o v e r l a i n

by ma

rl

(P la t e 2) .

Th i s smal l k a r s t conta ins a

r i ch va r i e ty

of fea tu re s : s ink ing s t reams ,

severa l

d i s t i n c t

types of cave, enclosed depress ions , po tho le s , n a t u ra l a rches , and minia tu re

canyons.

1) Udi t Cave

(F ig .

8) :

Ins ide

the lower , nor the rn , en t rance a

6

m cl imbable cascade l eads

to 100 m o f lOW, c r awling passage. Beyond t h i s the cave con t inues

as

a f ine boulder

s t rewn

tunne l

most ly

6

m high

and wide to

i t s end in a

s t a l a c t i t e

gro t to .

The one

j unc t ion i s

not

e a s i l y

found

- a smal l s t ream en t e r s th rough a low passage a t f l o o r l ev e l

and

t h i s can be

fo l lowed

up

through

the

base of two cl imbable

potho les and

then through a crawl

to

the

s ink

.

The

t o t a l

passage

l eng th

i s

790

m.

2 WainibuKu Cave (F ig. 8 : The s t r eam en t e r s the cave a f t e r cu t t i n g a

narrow

channel in the

l imes tone fo r one ki lometre . I t s bas in , seve ra l square ki lomet res in ex t en t , probably

used

to dra in

on

the sur face ,

through the col to

the

e a s t

of

the

top

en t rance .

The

i n i t i a l 75 m

of

s t ream passage i s m wide

by 6

m high ,

wi th deep

wate r .

The cave

becomes much l a rg e r a t

a j unc t ion

wi th

a

shor t dry

passage, and i s

inhabi ted by

many

b a t s , cockroaches ,

and s w i f t l e t s .

The

s t ream

cont inues

th rough a

number o f

pool s ,

in

a passage 4 m wide by

15

m high . It

emerges

from the

nor the rn en t rance

in to a c i r cu la r

pool .

Nearby

a re the en t rances

to two

s h o r t dry

caves .

Below

the poo l ,

t he s t ream flows through

a minia tu re canyon, with an arch,

deep

pools ,

and

cascades . This i s

presumably a fo rmer con t inua t ion

of the cave where

the

roof has co l l apsed .

The

l eng th of t he cave

i s

180 m.

3) Dharam Singh Cave

(F ig .

8): The smal l

sou the rn en t rance

gives access

to

a l a rge downward

s lop ing chamber, 55 m long

by

9

m

wide

and

6

m high , which i s

c rossed

by a t i n y s t ream.

An

i n s ign i f i c an t

hole

leads

i n t o a

hor izon ta l

passage,

about

3 m high wi th a f l a t muddy

f loo r .

Dayl igh t i s reached a f t e r 50 m, where the roof

has

co l l apsed . Beyond i s a la rge chamber 43 m

long

with a co l l apse hole i n t he roof .

Length 2

00 m.

8/21/2019 BCRA 11-2-1984


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1

.

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Q

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C

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.

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i

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m

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v

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8/21/2019 BCRA 11-2-1984


CAVES OF SOUTHE

RN

VITI LEVU

There i s very little exposed l imestone in the

southern

coas ta l

a

re

a of

Vi t i Le vu

,

between

Siga toka

and

the

Suva

area

r ig .

1 ) .

The

45

m long Matalima

Cave

occurs in a

t h in l imestone l ens

near

Nabukelevu V i l l ag e ,

12

km nor th of the Queens

Road

. Small c

av

es

in vOlcanic rock

are

repor ted

ne a r Rukua Vill a ge on

the west coast of

B

eqa I s land ,

and on

Yanuca

I s l a nd

10

km west

of

Beqa . Vatu le le

I s l and i s

a

lmost

en t i r e ly

l imes tone .

There a re

severa l caves

near the

nor the rn t i p

of

the

iS land ,

north,,,est

of Ekubu

V i l l ag e . These conta in

chambers with pools

of

brack i sh

water ,

ev iden t ly

connected

with t he sea , a nd i nhab i t ed by

red

pr aw ns .

a) Sigatoka River

Val ley

.

There are

severa l

l imestone outcrops in

the S ig

a t oka River Val ley Fig. 1 ) . Th e

val ley i s ch a r a c t e r i s ed

by

ro l l ing

h i l l s ,

with natura l grass l ands , and cu l t i v a

t ed

areas

with ma ny v ill ages . The l imestone

outcrops

are densely fo res ted ,

with

c l i f f s

cut

by

old

r i v e r meanders Pla te 3 . The l a r g es t maSS

of

l imestone in

the

i s l an d s ,

km

long and

km wide,

i s ne

a r Toga V i l l ag e . There i s a sma l l resurgence

cave

in the

c l i f f

oppos i t e

Toga

Vi

ll a ge . Two ki lomet r es to t he west . A

small

s tream emerges

from

a low a

rch

e d ent r ance

in

the c l i f f s

behind Sautabu Vil lag e . Beyond is

a chamber

about

350 m

long

and

30

m

wide,

with s ide passages le

a

ding

o

f f

a

t.

a higher

l ev e l . Watling

a

nd

Per n e t t a ,

1977) .

Thi r t een ki lomet r es

up

the S iga toka Va l ley

Ro

ad from Toga

Vil lage

, a

smal l

l imestone

ou

tc r

op ne a r Tuvu Vill ag e .

This i s

a

dense ly vegeta ted

area

of

j

agged pinnacles

and

rock

depress ions .

There

a re a few sma

ll

c aves in

the

low c l i f f s

facing

the ro a

d.

One

cont

a ins

a p i l e of human sku l l s .

Cl un ie

has

de s c r ibed Malua Cave , 2 . 5

km

southeas t o f Saweni Vi l l age . t cons is t s

of

tw o chambers in a l imestone

ou

t c rop , and i s of great h i s t o r i c

and

archaeological i n t e r e s t .

b)

S aweni.

Sawe

n i

Cave Fig.

9) is

formed in a n i so l a t ed b a nd of l imestone which en c i r c l e s Ta le ma lawe

Pe a k, a

nd conta ins

o the r c

av

es . The two

bottom entrances

a

re ac ross

the r ive r , and a

bout one

ki lomet r e from the

v i l l ag e

. The c ave

cons is t s of

an

upper

and a

lower s e r i e s of pass

a ges ,

which eme rge

a t a common

en t r

a

nce

higher up the

h i l l s i d e

. The presen t

s t r e

a

m

which i s

only

a

t r i c k l e

in dr y weather ,

has

inva ded

the

ex i s t ing cave and

cu t

the lower l ev e l pa

s sages

much

more r ecen t ly .

The

ch

ambers a

re impressive in s i ze , but there

a re

few format ions in the cave

except some

wa

ll

moonmilk .

There

a

re considerable

depos i t s of guano

th roughout

the

length

of

the

c

av

e . Archaeologica l exc a v a t ions prove t h a t the cave was

used

by

man for hundreds of

yea

r s ,

poss ib ly as a cen t re for ma king s h e l l orn a ments. There are

sever

a l b u r i a l s in th e cave f loor .

White-rumped swi f t l e t s breed and roos t in

the

c ave , a s

do

Long T a i l ed Fr u i t Ba ts and She a

th

Ta i l ed Ba t s . Ba

rn Owls Ty to alba)

a re of t en

seen

there , a s they

prey

on t he swi f t l e t s and

f r u i t

bat s . Surveyed

l ength

of S aweni

Cave

i s 42 0 m.

CA

V

ES OF SO

UT

HWEST VI TI LEVU

Limestone

of the

Thuv

a Sedimentary

Group s t re tches i r r eg u l

a

r ly

a long the

co as t a l

h i l l s

between

Siga toka

a nd Natado l a Ha

rbour

Fig.

1) .

Sink-holes a re common

but

how many of these

a re dr

a i

ned

by negot i

able c

aves

i s

not

known. Some s ink holes a re

usu

a l l y l a

kes and t he re fore

v ery poor lydr a ined . Small caves

occu

r a t

sever

a l l oca t ions . Natuata Cave , which i s used as

a bur i a l cha mber,

i s

ne a r Naevuevu Vill a ge, 8

km

west of

Sig

a toka by ro a d. There a re

sever

a l

smal l caves on the coas t to the sou

the

as t of Na t a

dol

a Ha

r b o u r : Cikec i

Cave

i s

an ac t i v e

s ink

in

wet we a

ther ,

s

itua ted

a bout 800 m from Sanasan a V

ill ag

e . Fur the r a long

the

Queens

Ro a d ne a r Tau Vill a ge, a bout 40

km

from

S ig

a tok a , t he re a re seve ra l c aves in a l imestone qu a r r y .

a) Vo l i V o l L

• The

en t r

a

nce

to Vo l i v o l i

Ca v

e

Fig

. 10)

i s

in

the f loor

of a

dr

y

val ley ne

a r the

escarp

me

n t over

lo

oki

n g Vo l i v o l i V il l age , 2

km southwest

of S ig a

to k

a . A

s t r e

a m

c le

a r l y

flows

th rough t h i s c av e in

wet

we a t h e r , a

nd

through

most

of

the c ave

it

has

cu t

a channel abou t

m wide with a f l oor of a

ngul

a r blocks .

The

ma in pa ss a ge

i s

smal l in

p l aces

, b u t ope

ns

in to

l a rge chambers with

ex tens i

v e mu d depos i t s .

The

c ave may c ont inue beyond the l ow pebbly

crawl , which ma

rks

th e end of the survey. There a r e

unconfirmed

re po r t s of a

bottom

e n t r a

nce

a l though wa t e r ev i den t l y b acks u p cons ide r a bly

in

the

chamb

e r b e fore the crawlway, s ugges t

ing

co n s t r i c t i o n s

fur ther on. Surveyed length

19 5 m.

LAVA CAVES OF TAVE

UN

I ISLAND

Almost the

who

l e

iS l a

nd

h as exper ienced

re

cent vO lc anic a c t i v i t y and most

of it

i s

cove red by l ava

flows

,

with

many c inder cones , one of which

i s

known to h ave

erupted

only

a bout 2000 yea rs a go .

Most of

the known l av a

tubes

a re

in

the coconu t plan ta t ions a t

the

southe

rn

end

of

the

i s l

a

nd Fi

g . 12 ) ;

but

t he re may be

more in

the u

ninh

a

bi ted

r a in

fo re s t

a l o

ng

the south - e a

s te rn s id

e

of

the iS l a

nd.

a) S a l i a levu .

The

cave e ~ t r n e

a 5 m

deep co l l

a

pse

hole , i s a

bout 30 minutes

wa

lk

f rom

Sal ia levu

V

ill age Fig

.

11) .

t

is

poss ib le to wa l k a

ll

the

way through

the

cave to

the

upper

en t r a

nce ,

a pa r t from o

ne

aW

kw

a

rd

pool , a

nd

c

l imbs up some of

the l

ava

f a l lS . The sma

ll

s tream h

as

inva

ded

the c ave onl y re l a tive ly recer . t l y , an d ha s had ve r y little e r

osive e f f ec t

on the

or ig ina

l l

ava format ions

. Mud a

nd

gr

ave

l

depos i t s

ob

scure them in some p l aces

.

Mo s t of the

wa

ll

s a re very smooth ,

but

where

the

f

lo

o r is un af fec

t ed

by the s t r e a m

it

i s commonly very

rough

and

sh

a rp, es p

ec ia

lly

a t

the la v a

f a l lS . Th

e

re

a

re

l

ava

t e r r a

ces in the pass

a ge

wal

l S ,

and in some pl a ces a f a

l s e

f loor divides the l

ava

tube . Downstream

of

the

main en t r anc e ,

there a re deep depos i t s of sof t a

nd

put r id -smel l ing mud. I t i s prob able t ha t

the

passage i s

114

8/21/2019 BCRA 11-2-1984


o

Stream

entrance

1:i

Si

de ,;

entra nces

ELEV T ION

me t res 50

• J

S WENI

C VE

BCRA GRADE

2B

PLA N

Main

Resurgence entrance

15m

FIGURE

9

VOLIVOLI C VE

BC RA GRADE

2B

High level

.

; ~ : ~ ~ : : : ~

PLAN

ELEVATION

?

o metres

50

L __ __ __

__

FIGURE 10

115

E

nt rance

Om.

c::::=o

10

2

30m.

8/21/2019 BCRA 11-2-1984


Upper

entrance

South Cape

• Cave entrance

A Probable cinder cone

.. Poss ible

cinder cone

'- 500 foot

contou

r

TAVEUNI km 1 >

Figure

12

SALIALEVU LAVA CAVE

BCRA

GRADE 3C

o metres

100

L

L

Figure

fa l l

Main

entrance

N

Deep

water

WAI MAQERE LAVA CAVE

BCRA GRADE 3C

o

P L N

?

Unsurveyed

? m e ~ ~ r e s ~

__ ~ ~ o

o

Lava

fall

ELEVATION

Entrance

U d sag

= = = = = ~ ~ = _ - ~ : ? : ~ ~ ~ , ~ - = = J = = = = : : : : = = = = : - ~ = ~ % ~ = : ~ = = _ ~ - ~ _ = = : ~ ~ : t ~ ~ s ~ ~ ~ r ~ ~ e ~ y ~ ~ = = ~ ~ ~ ; ; ~ ~ ~ e ~ = = =

10

c::::

~ . ~ ~

: : : : : : : = = : : . . : : : : : ~ _ _

Lav a f aII

20

Figure 13

6

8/21/2019 BCRA 11-2-1984


f i l l e d with mud o r water beyond t h i s poin t .

Bats

are

only

found close to the tunnel

en t rances , and smal l ee l s l i ve in the s t ream. Most of th i s 920 m

long

cave could eas i ly

be developed

as a t o u r i s t

a t t r ac t ion .

The es t ima ted s lope

of

the

cave i s 10

0

•

b Waimaqere.

Both of

the

l ava caves a t Waimaqere a re

in

the

coconut plan ta t ion , about

30

minutes

walk from

the

v i l l a g e . Cave Number

1

(Fig. 13)

needs a 6 m

l adder

to en ter

the co l lapse

hole en t rance .

The

surveyed l eng th i s about

330

m,

wi th another 100

m unsurveyed.

Cave

Number 2

has

a cons tan t

s lope of

about 8

0

downwards

from the walk- in en t rance .

It

i s a

s ing le

lava tube ,

most ly 6 m

high

and 3 to 9 m wide , for

the

surveyed l eng th

of 180

m.

Plan t roo ts

hang from

the roof in p laces .

There are only

a

few

dr ips o f

water

en ter ing these caves, so the lava

formations

are

b e t t e r preserved

than in Sa l i a l ev u Cave.

These inc lude

lava

f a l l s , deep channelS

in

the rough

c l in k e r y

f loor (Pla te

4

which

sometimes

meet and jo in

a t

junct ions .

l ava

t e r r aces and f a l se f loors and

ropy

l ava . Much

of

the

rock

i s very rough and sharp.

In

some

places there are

smal l

browniSh coloured

s traw

s t a l a c t i t e s ; in other s , a grey

white

depos i t on the roof .

c) Sogulu.

The two co l lapse hole en t rances to Soqulu Cave are a 30 minute walk uphi l l from the

Soqulu Esta te House,

12

km n o r th eas t o f Waimaqere. The

cave

i s a

s ing le

lava tube with a

f loor

of mud and boulde rs , and conta ins few i n t e r e s t ing format ions. The humped t op of the

lava

flow

it fol lows

can

be c lea r ly seen on t he sur face . Like other lava tubes, it

does

not d ip f a r below the su r f ace , and

roo ts

can be seen

in

severa l p laces .

There are

pi l e s

o f

bones in the lower par t o f the

cave.

The

es t ima ted l eng th of the

cave

i s 165

m.

d)

Other

Loca t ions .

Many smal ler and l e s s in t e r e s t ing l ava tunne l s have been found

in

southern Taveuni .

One which may be long

but

has

not

been explored i s

Qara

Tabu.

This

cave

r ea l ly i s

tabu;

Gilber t waS

forbidden by the Tui Vuna

to en ter the

cave.

There

a re

also

pr ac t i c a l

d i f f i c u l t i e s ; the

en t rance ,

near

the

South Cape, i s a t sea

l eve l

in

a

c l i f f face and

can

only

be en tered

by

boat in good condi t ions .

Caves have been noted

near

the v i l l ag es Qarawalu ( e igh t

caves ) and

Tubakau (Fig .12) .

A cave with two

chambers

and

passages leading

o f f i s r epor ted

near the

end

of t he Vuna

Road,

about 1 km from the South Cape.

It

i s bes t known l o ca l l y as the

cave

down which an Indian

was

once thrown .

C VES OF

THE

L U GROUP OF ISLANDS

There

i s a grea ter area

of

l imestone in t hese s ca t t e r ed i s lands than in the whole

of

the r e s t o f F i j i (F ig . 1) . Of the 36 l a rg es t

i s l ands ,

15 a re whol ly l imestone,

four

a re

s o l e l y volcan ic , and 17

of

composite nature . The l imestone i s lands a re q u i t e

di s t inc t ive

in appearance. They of ten have c l i f f s undercut

a t

sea l eve l ; the higher a reas a re covered

in

rocky

pinnac les and depress ions ,

entwined

with t r ee roo ts ;

sometimes

t h e r e i s a cen t r a l

depress ion , d ra in ing underground

to

the

coas t .

Much

of

t he fol lowing

informat ion

i s

obta ined from Ladd and HOffmeister 's (1945) a r t i c l e , which also con ta ins maps showing the

loca t ions

o f

many

caves.

The

i s lands

a re descr ibed

from

nor th

to

south.

a Vanua

Balavu

I s l and .

Caves occur in

the

l imes tone iS l e t s

a t

t he nor the rn end of Vanua Balavu, near Q i l aq i l a .

One

i s l e t

i s merely a hollow

l imes tone she l l conta in ing

a l a rge chamber,

22

m

high

and 1 m

deep

in sea water

(Sawyer

and

Andrews, 1901) .

b) Mago I s land .

. There

a re

many caves

in

the

l imestone

r im

of

Mago I s l and (Sawyer

and

Andrews,

1901) .

To

the

nor theas t ,

t h e r e

i s

an entrance in

a

l a rge c l i f f

f ace , 60 m above sea

l eve l .

This

l eads to severa l well decora ted chambers, 3 to 12 m long.

Another cave in

t h i s a rea has

a

35

m deep

en t rance sha f t ,

connected by a

se r i e s of l a r g e chambers,

to a bottom

en t rance

a t the base of

a

c l i f f . To the nor th ,

a l a rge

sha f t 35

m deep,

jo ins

a

t o r tuous

underground

passage about 700

m

long ,

which dra ins to

the sea .

In

the

northwest

of the i s land ,

a

small

cave

en t rance

gives access to a well decorated chamber,

30

m

square

and

10

m high. Severa l

passages l ead off one i s 300

m

long wi th s ide passages

(Sawyer

and

Andrews, 1901).

c) Lakeba I s l an d .

The wel l

known cave

on

Lakeba I s land i s near Nasaqalau, west

o f

the a i r s t r i p . The

cave

passage

i s

about

450

m

long ,

5 m

wide

and 15

m

high . It

has

s t a l a c t i t e s

hanging

from

the

roof , and a small s t ream in the f l a t mud f l o o r . The

f i r s t

en t rance i s in the s ide o f a

wooded bluf f , and

the cave

i t s e l f desc r ibes

a rough

a rc

th rough the

l imestone masS,

to

emerge a t t he

second

en t rance (Der r i ck , 1965; Sawyer and

Andrews,

1901) .

d) Other

I s lands

in

the

Lau Group.

Caves have been r epor ted

in

o ther i s lands in

t he

Lau

Group.

These

are :

Tuvuca

(Rodda,

1981) ,

Cicia ,which

i s

s imi la r to Mago

I s l an d

(Sawyer and Andrews, 1901) ,

Vanua

Vatu ,

Namuka - i -Lau,

Yagasa (Sawyer and

Andrews,

1901) , Waqava

(Ladd

and

Hoffmeister , 1945) and

Fu1aga.

C VES

OF

OTHER ISLANDS IN FIJI

a)

Vanua Levu I s l and .

Vanua Levu i s the

second

l a r ge s t i s land in the F i j i

Group,

but t h e r e i s hard ly any

l imestone,

and

most

of

the

rock

i s of older

volcan ic

o r i g i n . Small caves

occur

in co ra l l i n e

l imestone outcrops

in

the

Labasa

area ( Ibbotson,

1969) .

117

8/21/2019 BCRA 11-2-1984


b) Rotuma I s l and .

. Rotuma, about

650

kID to

the

nor th

of

Suva, i s a

young volcan ic

i s l and and severa l lava

tunnels a re known to

e x i s t

Rodda,

in

Gilbe r t 1975)

c)

Kadavu I s l an d s .

. The Kadavu I s l

ands

a re

mainly

volcan ic in or iq in wi th ve ry littl l imes tone . A few

smal l caves

have

been r epor ted Rodda , in Gi l b e r t

1975).

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This

a

r t i c l e was or ig ina l ly

in tended

for pub l i ca t ion in F i j i but s inc

e t he

decease

o f the

author

in

1

978, it has been r e v i se d

by

h i s

widow,Judy

Gilber t for publ icat ion in

Cave

Science.

P .

Rodda,

a

geo log i s t employed by

t he

F i j i government ,

cont r ibuted to the or ig ina l r epor t

1975)

and

helped with

t he

prepara t ion of

the

f ina l t ex t .

F .

Clunie of

the

F i j i

Museum

provided

in format ion

regard ing cave

biology

and

caves in the Sigatoka

Val ley .

The fo l lowing people ass i s ted

the

author

with the

surveys :

J . Gi lber t D. Swann, C.

and

J .

Venning, D. Story

C. Clements ,

P .

Hil ton and

D.

Sharma

.

Dr.

A.

Waltham gave inva luable he lp with the

f ina l

a r t i c l e .

Spec ia l

thanks are

due

to v i l l a g e r s

and

farmers in F i j i

who

allowed

access

to caves

on

t h e i r land

and

of ten ac ted

as

guides to the

ent rances .

REFERENCES

Bartholomew, R.W.

1960 .

Geology of the

Nandi a re a

Western V it

i Levu. Bull .

Geol . Surv. Fij i N o . 7 .

Derr ick ,

R.A. 1965. The Fij i Islands .

Second, r e v i se d

ed i t ion .

Government

P r i n t e r Suva.

Edmonson, C.H

.

1935. B.P.

Bishop

Mus . Dcc . Paper No. 11 3)

.

Gi lber t

T 1975. Caves

o f Fij i unpubl i shed r epor t .

Ibbots

on

, P .

1960

.

Geology

of the

Suva

a re a

V i t i

Levu.

Bull .

Geol. Surv.

Fi j i

No. 4 .

Ladd, H.S

. , Hoffmeis ter ,

J .E .

1945. Geology o f

La u

,

F i j i . Bull . Bishop

Mus. Honolulu No .

18 1

.

Rodda,

P.

1981.

The phosphate

de pos i t s and

geo logy

o f

Tuvutha

.

Econ . In v . Miner. Resources Dep.

Fi j i N o . 3 .

Rodda,

P. 1967. Out l ine of the

geology

o f

V i t i

Levu . Geological

Survey

of Fi j i Dcc. Paper N o .3 .

Sawyer,

B . Andrews, E .

C.

1901.

Notes on the caves of Fi j i with spec ia l r e fe re nc e to Lau.

Proc

.

Linn

.

Soc.

NSW

XXVI, pp.

91

- 10 6 .

Watl ing ,

D., Perne t t a

J .C. 1977.

Limestone caves in

the Sigatoka

Val ley V i t i Levu, F i j i . Stud.

Speleol .

Vol . 3

2),

pp. 78-86.

Revised

MS rece ived

23rd

May 1984

118

J . Gi

l

b e r t

,

19

Cotswold

Drive ,

Sprotborough,

Doncas ter ,

DN 7PF.

8/21/2019 BCRA 11-2-1984


NOW A V

AIIABLE

LIMESTONES AND CAVES

OF

THE

PEAK

DISTRICT

compiled

and edited

by

T.

D. Ford

published by Geo-books

c o

Geo-Abstracts

Ltd.

University

of East Anglia, Norwich

469

pages.

£11.50

soft back;

£15 hard

back.

Available from B. C. R. A. Sales

THE

BRITISH NEW GUINEA SPELEOLOGICAL

EXPEDITION

compiled by Dave Brook

(Transactions

British Cave

Research

Asoociation

Volume 3, combined nos

3

4, 1976)

Available

from B.C.R.A. Sales

£3 (plus p p

£1)

DAN YR

OGOF

by

Alan

Coase Dave

Judson

(Transactions of

the British

Cave

Research

Associat ion

Volume

4, combined nos

1 2, 1977)

(With large survey

sheets)

Available from

B. C. R.

A. Sales

£4.50

(plus P P

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Write for full price

list

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C VE SCIENCE

The TRANSAC TI ONS OF THE BRITISH

CAVE

RESEARCH ASSOCIATION covers a l l as?

ec t s

of sp e l eo lo g i ca l

sc ience , inc lud

ing geology, geomorphology, hydrology, chemist ry , physics archaeology and

biology in t h e i r ap

pl i ca t ion

to caves

as

well

as

t echnolog ica l

mat te r s

such

as

explora t ion ,

equipment surveying,

photography

and

documentation

. Papers may

be

read a t General Meetings

he ld in

var ious

pa r t s

of

Br i t a i n ,

but they

may be

submit ted fo r

p u b l i ca t i o n without being

read . Manuscr ip ts

should be sen t

to the

Edi to r , Dr. T.D.

Ford,

Geology

Department,

n i v e r s i t ~

of Leices ter L eices t e r LEl 7RH who w i l l

be

pleased to advi se in cases

of

doubt about

the

prepara t ion

o f manuscrip ts

.

The Transac t ions i s

normal ly

i s sued four t imes

a year to

paid

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up

members o f

the

Br i t i sh Cave

Research

Assoc ia t ion . Subsc r ip t ions are

due

on 1 s t January

annual ly

.

MEMBERS OF BCRA

COUNCIL FOR

1984

Pres id en t :

Chairman :

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Membership

Secre tary

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Off i cer :

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Geology,

The Univers i ty , Leices ter LEl 7RH

.

J .S . Corr in 55

Osborne

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Close,

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Wil ts SPl lPX.

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The

Parks,

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Geoff

Wells 39 Linden Road,

Redland,

Br i s to l BS6 .

Keith Plumb

11

Copper

Be

ec h Way Leighton

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Bedfordsh i r e LU7

SBD.

Pe t e r

Robertson

36

Tadf ie ld

Road Romsey

Hants

S05

SAJ .

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A.C

. Waltham,

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Engineer ing Dept . ,

Tren t Po l y te chnic ,

Nottingham

NGl 4BU

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Reach,

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