Secondary minerals from salt caves in the Atacama Desert (Chile): a hyperarid and hypersaline environment with potential analogies to the Martian subsurface
Over the past 15 years several expeditions by French, American and especially Italian cavers have unveiled over 50 caves in the Cordillera de la Sal (Atacama Desert, Northern Chile). Many of these caves contain a variety of speleothems and minerals, some of which have rarely been observed within kar...
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ftunisfloridatam:oai:digitalcommons.usf.edu:ijs-2094 2023-05-15T14:01:06+02:00 Secondary minerals from salt caves in the Atacama Desert (Chile): a hyperarid and hypersaline environment with potential analogies to the Martian subsurface De Waele, Jo Carbone, Cristina Sanna, Laura Vattano, Marco Galli, Ermanno Sauro, Francesco Forti, Paolo 2017-01-31T23:09:40Z application/pdf https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/ijs/vol46/iss1/7 https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2094&context=ijs unknown Digital Commons @ University of South Florida https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/ijs/vol46/iss1/7 https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2094&context=ijs http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/legalcode CC-BY-NC International Journal of Speleology cave minerals salt caves hyperaridity minerogenesis Mars analogues Geochemistry Geology Geomorphology Mineral Physics article 2017 ftunisfloridatam 2021-10-09T07:27:49Z Over the past 15 years several expeditions by French, American and especially Italian cavers have unveiled over 50 caves in the Cordillera de la Sal (Atacama Desert, Northern Chile). Many of these caves contain a variety of speleothems and minerals, some of which have rarely been observed within karst systems. Most of the secondary deposits in these caves are composed of halite, but also other halide, carbonate, sulphate, nitrate, phosphate, and silicate minerals have been found. Among the sixteen cave mineral species recognized, atacamite, darapskite, blödite, leonite, anhydrite, and especially antarcticite are worth mentioning. In one of the samples an unknown Ca-Sr-bearing chloride mineral has also been discovered, but it has not been possible to carry out detailed mineralogical analyses. These often-rare minerals have formed in this region due to the very extreme hyperarid and salt-rich environment. This research reports the mineralogical results and proposes the genetical mechanisms leading to the formation of antarcticite, powdery anhydrite, and the paragenesis of the halite-darapskite-blödite. This study also shows that Atacama caves may be excellent analogues to study weathering processes and subsurface secondary minerals in hyperarid and hypersaline environments on Mars. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Digital Commons University of South Florida (USF) |
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Open Polar |
collection |
Digital Commons University of South Florida (USF) |
op_collection_id |
ftunisfloridatam |
language |
unknown |
topic |
cave minerals salt caves hyperaridity minerogenesis Mars analogues Geochemistry Geology Geomorphology Mineral Physics |
spellingShingle |
cave minerals salt caves hyperaridity minerogenesis Mars analogues Geochemistry Geology Geomorphology Mineral Physics De Waele, Jo Carbone, Cristina Sanna, Laura Vattano, Marco Galli, Ermanno Sauro, Francesco Forti, Paolo Secondary minerals from salt caves in the Atacama Desert (Chile): a hyperarid and hypersaline environment with potential analogies to the Martian subsurface |
topic_facet |
cave minerals salt caves hyperaridity minerogenesis Mars analogues Geochemistry Geology Geomorphology Mineral Physics |
description |
Over the past 15 years several expeditions by French, American and especially Italian cavers have unveiled over 50 caves in the Cordillera de la Sal (Atacama Desert, Northern Chile). Many of these caves contain a variety of speleothems and minerals, some of which have rarely been observed within karst systems. Most of the secondary deposits in these caves are composed of halite, but also other halide, carbonate, sulphate, nitrate, phosphate, and silicate minerals have been found. Among the sixteen cave mineral species recognized, atacamite, darapskite, blödite, leonite, anhydrite, and especially antarcticite are worth mentioning. In one of the samples an unknown Ca-Sr-bearing chloride mineral has also been discovered, but it has not been possible to carry out detailed mineralogical analyses. These often-rare minerals have formed in this region due to the very extreme hyperarid and salt-rich environment. This research reports the mineralogical results and proposes the genetical mechanisms leading to the formation of antarcticite, powdery anhydrite, and the paragenesis of the halite-darapskite-blödite. This study also shows that Atacama caves may be excellent analogues to study weathering processes and subsurface secondary minerals in hyperarid and hypersaline environments on Mars. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
De Waele, Jo Carbone, Cristina Sanna, Laura Vattano, Marco Galli, Ermanno Sauro, Francesco Forti, Paolo |
author_facet |
De Waele, Jo Carbone, Cristina Sanna, Laura Vattano, Marco Galli, Ermanno Sauro, Francesco Forti, Paolo |
author_sort |
De Waele, Jo |
title |
Secondary minerals from salt caves in the Atacama Desert (Chile): a hyperarid and hypersaline environment with potential analogies to the Martian subsurface |
title_short |
Secondary minerals from salt caves in the Atacama Desert (Chile): a hyperarid and hypersaline environment with potential analogies to the Martian subsurface |
title_full |
Secondary minerals from salt caves in the Atacama Desert (Chile): a hyperarid and hypersaline environment with potential analogies to the Martian subsurface |
title_fullStr |
Secondary minerals from salt caves in the Atacama Desert (Chile): a hyperarid and hypersaline environment with potential analogies to the Martian subsurface |
title_full_unstemmed |
Secondary minerals from salt caves in the Atacama Desert (Chile): a hyperarid and hypersaline environment with potential analogies to the Martian subsurface |
title_sort |
secondary minerals from salt caves in the atacama desert (chile): a hyperarid and hypersaline environment with potential analogies to the martian subsurface |
publisher |
Digital Commons @ University of South Florida |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/ijs/vol46/iss1/7 https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2094&context=ijs |
genre |
Antarc* |
genre_facet |
Antarc* |
op_source |
International Journal of Speleology |
op_relation |
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/ijs/vol46/iss1/7 https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2094&context=ijs |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/legalcode |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY-NC |
_version_ |
1766270624400932864 |