%0 Book Section
%T Features and Origin of Red Claysin Castafiar Cave: A Touch of Colour
publisher Springer Verlag
%D 2010
%U 978-3-642-12485-3
%@ https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/45502
%X In Castaiiar Cave (Caceres, Spain), coatings of red clays cover the wallsof the chambers, coexisting with diverse speleothems of aragonite, calcite, huntiteand dolomite. The mineralogy of the clays is mainly illite, chlorite, kaolinite, smectite,quartz and Fe oxides and hydroxides such as goethite. They can be transportedinto the cave by infiltration waters or form by in situ alteration of the host rock: layersof dolomite rich in Fe and magnesite interbedded with greywackes and shales.Present-day hydrological conditions in the cave and conditions during the formationof speleothems have determined that the clays have not been transported by anyflooding or seepage, but mostly staying in situ, and not included into carbonate crystalforms . Thus, most of the well-preserved speleothems are white and not stained,conforming an interesting chromatic contrast with the red clays that represent anadditional attraction in this show cave.
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