Abstract
Speleothems in the karst caves of South Korea, which receive many visitors, are losing their aesthetic appeal due to black coloring. Mineralogical, textural, and chemical analyses were conducted on the speleothems to discover the cause of the discoloration. An abrupt color change from the natural color seen in the inner zones to the black color of the outer zones suggests that pollution commenced just after the opening of caves to visitors, and has continued since then. The main mineral compositions of both the outer black and the inner layers are the same, but the concentration of non-carbonate carbon is much higher in the black layers than in the inner layers. Electron microscopy showed that chain-like agglomerates (ca. 0.2-1.1 μm diameter) of sub-micrometer carbon spheres (ca. 0.02-0.05 μm diameter) are absent from the inner layer but present in the black layer, as well as in the cave aerosol. On the basis of their sub-micrometer size, agglomeration pattern, and composition, the carbon spheres and their agglomerates are considered to originate mostly from automobile exhaust. They are presumed to have been carried into the caves by visitors from urban environments and then deposited on the surface of growing speleothems. Protection of speleothems from discoloration requires control of these fine anthropogenic aerosols.
© 2015 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston
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Articles in the same Issue
- Partial equilibrium of radiogenic and stable isotope systems in garnet peridotite during ultrahigh-pressure metamorphism
- Experimental determination of Au solubility in rhyolite melt and magnetite: Constraints on magmatic Au budgets
- Surface oxidation of chalcocite (Cu2S) under aqueous (pH = 2–11) and ambient atmospheric conditions: Mineralogy from Cu L- and O K-edge X-ray absorption spectroscopy
- Determination of molar absorptivity of IR fundamental OH-stretching vibration in rhyolitic glasses
- The effect of radiation damage on local structure in the crystalline fraction of ZrSiO4: Investigating the 29Si NMR response to pressure in zircon and reidite
- The structural behavior of Al3+ in peralkaline melts and glasses in the system Na2O-Al2O3-SiO2
- Hydromaghemite, an intermediate in the hydrothermal transformation of 2-line ferrihydrite into hematite
- Carbon isotope “stratigraphy” in a single graphite crystal: Implications for the crystal growth mechanism of fluid-deposited graphite
- Woodruffite: A new Mn oxide structure with 3 × 4 tunnels
- Calderonite, a new lead-iron-vanadate of the brackebuschite group
- Low-temperature microdiamond aggregates in the Maksyutov Metamorphic Complex, South Ural Mountains, Russia
- Crystal structure of protoanthophyllite: A new mineral from the Takase ultramafic complex, Japan
- Crystallization of AlPO4-SiO2 solid solutions from granitic melt and implications for P-rich melt inclusions in pegmatitic quartz
- On the formation of peridotite-derived Os-rich PGE alloys
- Viscosity of hydrous rhyolitic melts inferred from kinetic experiments, and a new viscosity model
- Geothermobarometry and U-Pb Geochronology of metapelitic granulites and pelitic migmatites from the Lokoho region, Northern Madagascar
- The aperiodic states of zircon: an ab initio molecular dynamics study
- Cathodoluminescence investigations on the Popigai, Ries, and Lappajärvi impact diamonds
- Isomorphous cation substitution in dioctahedral phyllosilicates by means of ab initio quantum mechanical calculations on clusters
- Alacranite, As8S9: structural study of the holotype and re-assignment of the original chemical formula
- Influence of layer charge on the hydroxyl stretching of trioctahedral clay minerals: A vibrational study of synthetic Na- and K-saponites
- Stacking faults and twin boundaries in sphalerite crystals from the Trepcˇa mines in Kosovo
- Letters. Rock-forming moissanite (natural α-silicon carbide)
- Water solubility in carbonatite melts
- Trace element partitioning between mantle wedge peridotite and hydrous MgO-rich melt
- Rubidium- and cesium-dominant micas in granitic pegmatites
- Nanoscale mineralogy of arsenic in a region of New Hampshire with elevated As-concentrations in the groundwater
- Micro- and nanochemistry of fly ash from a coal-fired power plant
- Thermal behavior of dental enamel and geologic apatite: An infrared spectroscopic study
- Black carbon pollution of speleothems by fine urban aerosols in tourist caves
- Decay-induced biomineralization of the saguaro cactus (Carnegiea gigantea)
- The distribution of zeolites and their effects on the performance of a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, U.S.A.
- Transformation of 2-line ferrihydrite to 6-line ferrihydrite under oxic and anoxic conditions
- Iron-rich precipitates in a mine drainage environment: Influence of pH on mineralogy
- Efflorescent iron sulfate minerals: Paragenesis, relative stability, and environmental impact
- Secondary mineralogy and microtextures of weathered sulfides and manganoan carbonates in mine waste-rock dumps, with implications for heavy-metal fixation
- Acquisition and evaluation of thermodynamic data for morenosite-retgersite equilibria at 0.1 MPa
- On the thermochemistry of the solid solution between jarosite and its chromate analog
- The Composition and Morphology of Amphiboles from the Rainy Creek Complex, Near Libby, Montana
- Composition, Fe3+/ΣFe, and crystal structure of non-asbestiform and asbestiform amphiboles from Libby, Montana, U.S.A.
- A rapid and accurate procedure for the determination of refractive indices of regulated asbestos minerals
- Ferrous saponite from the Deccan Trap, India, and its application in adsorption and reduction of hexavalent chromium
- Nanomorphology of montmorillonite particles: Estimation of the clay edge sorption site density by low-pressure gas adsorption and AFM observations
- Medieval stained glass in a Mediterranean climate: Typology, weathering and glass decay, and associated biomineralization processes and products
- The structure of disordered mackinawite
- The reactivity of seven Mn-oxides with Cr3+aq: A comparative analysis of a complex, environmentally important redox reaction
- Sorption mechanisms of Sr and Pb on zeolitized tuffs from the Nevada test site as a function of pH and ionic strength
- Letters. Tailoring calcite: Nanoscale AFM of coccolith biocrystals