article
Timing of speleogenesis of Las Karmidas Cave (Mexico): first description of pseudokarst developed in ignimbrite
Registro en:
Aliaga-Campuzano, María del Pilar; Rafael López-Martínez; Pablo Dávila-Harris; Ramón Espinasa-Pereña; Adriana Espino del Castillo; and J.P. Bernal. 2017. Timing of speleogenesis of Las Karmidas Cave (Mexico): first description of pseudokarst developed in ignimbrite. International Journal of Speleology, 46: 331-343.
Autor
Aliaga Campuzano, María del Pilar
López Martínez, Rafael
Dávila Harris, Pablo
Espinasa Pereña, Ramón
Espino del Castillo Rodríguez, Adriana
Resumen
"Las Karmidas Cave (Puebla State, Mexico) is an unusual type of pseudokarstic cavity generated by piping and erosive processes within the contact of a diamicton and an overlying Quaternary ignimbrite. Morphological evidence suggests that the cave was developed in two stages: a phreatic stage and a vadose stage. The latter was characterized by the formation of carbonate speleothems. The absolute upper-age limit for the cave (168 +7.1/-7.5 ka) was established by U-Th dating of zircons grains extracted from the overlying ignimbrite, whilst a minimum age for the transition from a phreatic to vadose regime (95.6 ± 2.1 ka) was constrained by U-Th dating of carbonate speleothems within the cave. The geochronological results indicate a very rapid evolution of this pseudokarstic system, and suggest that similar systems might evolve and degrade at a very fast pace; consequently, making them hard to be preserved. Despite this, and considering the rather common geological context in which this system was developed, it is likely that similar pseudokarstic systems are yet to be detected worldwide."