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Título
Extremely high diversity of sulfate minerals in caves of the Irazú Volcano (Costa Rica) related to crater lake and fumarolic activity
Autor
Año del Documento
2018
Documento Fuente
International Journal of Speleology, Mayo 2018, vol. 47, n. 2. p. 229-246.
Résumé
The caves of the Irazú volcano (Costa Rica), became accessible after the partial collapse
of the NW sector of the Irazú volcano in 1994, offering the opportunity to investigate
active minerogenetic processes in volcanic cave environments. We performed a detailed
mineralogical and geochemical study of speleothems in the caves Cueva los Minerales and
Cueva Los Mucolitos, both located in the northwest foothills of the main crater. Mineralogical
analyses included X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Raman spectroscopy, while geochemical
characterization used Energy Dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) coupled to Scanning
Electron Microscopy (SEM). In addition, measurements of environmental parameters in the
caves, cave drip water and compilation of geochemical analyses of the Irazú volcanic lake
(~150 m above the cave level) and fumarole analyses were conducted between 1991 and
2014. We identified forty-eight different mineral phases, mostly rare hydrated sulfates of the
alunite, halotrichite, copiapite, kieserite and rozenite groups, thirteen of which are described
here as cave minerals for the first time. This includes the first occurrence in cave environments
of aplowite, bieberite, boyleite, dietrichite, ferricopiapite, ferrinatrite, lausenite, lishizhenite,
magnesiocopiapite, marinellite, pentahydrite, szomolnokite, and wupatkiite. The presence
of other new cave minerals such as tolbachite, mercallite, rhomboclase, cyanochroite, and
retgersite, is likely but could not be confirmed by various mineralogical techniques. Uplifting
of sulfurous gases, water seepage from the Irazú volcanic lake and hydrothermal interactions
with the volcanic host rock are responsible for such extreme mineralogical diversity. These
findings make the caves of the Irazú volcano a world-type- reference locality for investigations
on the formation and assemblage of sulfate minerals and the biogeochemical cycle of sulfur,
with potential implications for Astrobiology and Planetary science.
ISSN
ISSN 0392-6672
Revisión por pares
SI
Idioma
eng
Derechos
openAccess
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Tamaño:
20.42Mo
Formato:
Adobe PDF
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