Hypogene Speleogenesis: Hydrogeological and Morphogenetic Perspective. Alexander Klimchouk. National Cave and Karst Research Institute, Carlsbad, New Mexico; 2007. ISBN 978-0-9795422-0-6. 8.5 by 11 inches, 106 pages, softbound. Special Paper number 1. $35.
Alexander Klimchouk, a Ukrainian cave scientist and honorary member of the National Speleological Society, wrote this book during a year-long visit to the United States under the auspices of NCKRI. It summarizes the author's thoughts on what I consider two related topics: hypogene speleogenesis by water, heated or charged with CO2 or H2S from deep sources, rising from the depths, and speleogenesis by artesian water, even local rainwater, that is passing upward from one aquifer to another through a soluble bed. An example of the first is 480-meter-deep Lechuguilla Cave in New Mexico, and classic examples of the second are the long Ukrainian maze caves formed in a 15-meter-thick layer of gypsum. The author considers all these to be hypogene caves because water moving upward was principally responsible for their development, and they do share some morphological properties, such as mazy passages that dead-end horizontally and ceiling cupolas that served as outlets. Members of the first class tend to be vertically extensive, with disorganized-appearing rounded rooms and domes, whereas members of the second tend to be compact, dense horizontal mazes of passages formed along joints or fractures by "confined transverse speleogenesis"-confined between the upper and lower aquifers. Klimchouk believes that the caves in the Guads also formed in a confining paleo-environment. Besides the Guadalupe Mountains caves, which get the most space, and the giant gypsum caves of the Ukraine, numerous other examples of hypogenic caves around the world are described, illustrating the importance of this sort of speleogenesis, which has only relatively recently been recognized as an important alternative to epigenic caves, formed by descending rainwater gathering into underground streams. Sixteen pages of color photos illustrate features of hypogenic caves, but there is very little actual color in them, and they could have been more usefully and economically printed in black-and-white at the appropriate places in the text. The English in the book is quite good, but it would get a low score from the sorts of programs that compute readability. It is dense with long words and complicated sentences, and a careful reading will require the patience to parse, after supplying the missing commas, sentences like, "Besides major sedimentological heterogeneities in the vertical section, such as alternating prominent beds of contrasting lithologies which determine the principal hydrostratigraphy in a basin depositional environments and facies changes within an otherwise 'homogeneous' soluble formation play an important role in determining the secondary porosity and permeability distribution and their subsequent evolution through burial diagenesis and tectonism." Fortunately, a less than careful reading, assisted by the many clear diagrams, will get the main points across. While numerous articles and chapters have been written about hypogene speleogenesis, Hypogene Speleogenesis is the first book to cover the whole topic at length, and it is an important contribution to cave geology.-Bill Mixon ----------------------- You may "Reply" to the address from which this message was sent, but note the following permanent addresses for long-term use: Personal: [email protected] AMCS: [email protected], [email protected] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected]
