Cave air

Two features in caves facilitate the use of stable isotopes as a palaeoarchive (1) cave air temperatures remain relatively constant throughout the year and are similar to the mean annual temperature above the cave. (2) In cool temperate climate regions, cave air is characterized by very high humidity that minimizes evaporation effects. Interest in speleothems as recorders of continental palaeoenvironments has increased considerably in recent years. The potential of speleothems as climate indicators was first discussed by Hendy and Wilson (1968) followed by Thompson et al. (1974). These early investigators already recognized the complexity of cave carbonate iso-... 

Consistent with the measured cave air temperatures, Sparmagel Cave lakes perermial ice, expect for a neighboring cave (near the main entrance of Sparmagel Cave) that contains a small accumulation of ice, the volume of which has steadily decreased dining the past few years. 

Concentration of carbon dioxide in the cave air as determined by a calibrated infrared CO2 meter is equal to, or only slightly higher than, the outside atmospheric value for this altitude (approximately 285 ppmv) and shows only minor variations in different parts of the cave. This is consistent with the sparse development of soil and vegetation above the cave, the long period of snow cover (8-10 months) and the good ventilation of the system. 

Fairchild et al. (2000), who showed that it was enhanced during the dry season at Clamouse cave in southern France. The associated high Mg/Ca and Sr/Ca ratios have been used to develop an aridity index (McMillan et al., 2005). Seasonally increased degassing occurs when drip rates are slow and the aquifer contains more gas spaces. Second, the pC02 of cave air can be seasonally lowered as described in section 7.2.4. 

Spotl, C., Fairchild, I.J. Tooth, A.F. (2005) Speleothem deposition in a dynamically ventilated cave, Obir Caves (Austrian Alps). Evidence from cave air and drip water monitoring. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 69, 2451-2468. 

The editor has been told that air can be explosive in its own right in a eucalyptus wood on a hot day, and, having smelt one, does not find this absolutely incredible. Explosive air is sometimes also found in caves and mines when decaying vegetable matter is present. 

Even marine mammals, especially baleen whales, may use odors from land or sea for navigation. They may also locate their food, krill, near the surface by sampling the air for krill odor (Cave, 1988). 

The Dragon lurks in caves beneath the earth man, on the other hand, lives in the air nearby and above the earth. They represent, according to the Hermetic Philosophers, two opposing elements, but these must be... 

After Julius Elster and Hans Geitel had noticed that the electrical conductivity of the air in caves and closed cellars is higher than that in the free atmosphere, they finally found that this was caused by the presence of emanations, or radioactive gases, in the ground. In a series of investigations from 1901 to 1906 they demonstrated the presence of radioactive elements in various kinds of rocks and soils, and showed that minute amounts of both radium and thorium are widely distributed in the earth s crust, in spring waters, in sea water, and in the atmosphere (85, 96). 

Cave deposits consist of minerat calcite fCaCOgj that precipitate from ground-water that enters a cavern and evaporates into the air. An abundance of caicite deposits form the rock travertine (a variety of limestone). 

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