Guadalupe Mountains

Lundberg, J., Ford, D.C., and Hill, C.A., 2000, A preliminary U-Pb date on cave spar. Big Canyon, Guadalupe Mountains, New Mexico, USA, J. Cave Karst Stud. 62 144-146. 

SILICATES IN CARBONATE SPELEOTHEMS, GUADALUPE MOUNTAINS, NEW MEXICO, U.S.A. 

Figure 1. Map showing location of three caves in tiie Guadalupe Mountains, New Mexico pertinent to this study. The photograph shows typical carbonate speleothems.

Silicates such as amorphous silica, trioctahedral smectite, and quartz, form in carbonate speleothems such as stalagmites, moonmilks, and crusts in the Guadalupe Mountains, New Mexico. In areas of relatively rapid carbonate mineral precipitation, amorphous silica was the common phase. In contrast, trioctahedral smectite and quartz formed where carbonate mineral precipitation was very slow and depositional conditions remained nearly constant for long periods of time. Other Mg-silicates such as kerolite formed in depositional environments between these two extremes. 

Hill, C.A., 1987, Geology of Carlsbad Cavern and other caves in the Guadalupe Mountains, New Mexico and Texas, New Mexico Bureau of Mines and Mineral Resources, Bulletin, 117 150p. 

Polyak, V.J. and Giiven, N., 2000, Authigenesis of trioctahedral smectite in magnesium carbonate speleothems in Carlsbad Cavern and other caves of the Guadalupe Mountains, New Mexico, Clays Clay Miner, 48 317-321. 

Polyak, V.J., Karlsson, H.R., and Provencio, P., 2001, Cave-authigenic dolomite in the Guadalupe Mountains, New Mexico, unpublished manuscript, Carlsbad Caverns National Park, 25p. 

Jacka, A.D. (1974) Differential cementation of Pleistocene carbonate fanglomerate, Guadalupe Mountains. J. sediment. Petrol., 44(1), 85-92. 

Rule 6 addresses compounds that contain the carbonate ion— CO3. Some of the most common minerals in nature are various forms of calcium carbonate (CaCOj) and include calcite, Umestone, aragonite, travertine, chalk, and marble, all of which are white in color. Some limestone consists of very large formations that are now exposed to view. The famed white cliffs of Dover, England a large layer of the Grand Canyon in Arizona and an exposed layer of limestone in the Guadalupe Mountains of Texas, which date from the Permian Era, are all made of calcium carbonate. 

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