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Atlas of Cave Morphs: Repository of Annotated Cave Morphology Images

Cave scientists and explorers are kindly invited to contribute their photographs and experience to the Atlas. (You have to be a registered member of Speleogenesis Network to download your images and comment on existing ones)

Atlas of Cave Morphs is an informal collaborative project of the UIS Commission on Karst Hydrogeology and Speleogenesis run through Speleogenesis Network.

The goal is to create the structured collection (repository) of annotated images of type and unique cave morphologies, a representative resource for knowledge discovery in the field of speleogenesis. The Atlas provides not only a reference source and an image gallery, but a collaborative workspace for the image collection, analysis, interpretation and categorization.

Rationale

Contribute your image

The meso-morphology of caves is one the most important characteristics of caves indicating their origin. However, genetic interpretation of individual morphs is not straightforward and unequivocal. A possibility to access and discuss the wealth of images of both typical and unique cave morphologies, accumulated by cave explorers and scientists from various regions, will greatly facilitate their understanding and interpretation. This will serve to better categorize cave morphs, identify and resolve interpretative controversies and establish more clear criteria for adequate morphogenetic interpretation of key cave morphologies.

Conditions for Use of Images

Images 1 to 15 of 64

Feeder and rising wall channel in a hypogenic cave properties	Image Name:	Feeder and rising wall channel in a hypogenic cave
	Cave, region, Country:	Jubilejnaja Cave Western Ukraine Ukraine
	Description:	A point feeder in the foot of the wall of a passage, a rising conduit connecting to the master level in the 2 km-long maze network cave in the Neogene gypsum. The feeder rises from the underlying limestone/sandstone bed which was a major aquifer during speleogensis under confined conditions. Note a rising channel in the wall above the feeder, indicating dissolution by rising currents in a convection cell.
	Category: Cave Morph	Feeders (points)
	Category: Controls	Hydrologic: Confined
	Interpretation:	Confined aquifer, hypogenic transverse speleogenesis, sluggish circulation, natural convection effects
	Author:	Alexander Klimchouk
	Published on:	2008-05-10
	Published by:	Alexander Klimchouk
	Relevant link:	Click here to open the Link Open Link in the new window

Partition in a hypogenic cave properties	Image Name:	Partition in a hypogenic cave
	Cave, region, Country:	Jubilejnaja Cave Western Ukraine Ukraine
	Description:	A partition across a passage composed by clayey carbonate fill of a pre-speleogenetic fracture. The 1-3 cm wide partition is projected from the walls due to dissolution of the bedrock gypsum.
	Category: Cave Morph	Partitions: Fracture fill
	Category: Controls	Hydrologic: Confined
	Interpretation:	Confined aquifer, hypogenic transverse speleogenesis, sluggish circulation
	Author:	Alexander Klimchouk
	Published on:	2008-05-10
	Published by:	Alexander Klimchouk
	Relevant link:	Click here to open the Link Open Link in the new window

Ceiling pendant in a hypogenic cave properties	Image Name:	Ceiling pendant in a hypogenic cave
	Cave, region, Country:	Kristal'naja Cave Western Ukraine Ukraine
	Description:	A ceiling pendant in 28 km-long Krustal'naja Cave, a hypogenic maze cave in the Neogene gypsum. Pendants in this case are parts of complex solution morphology at the ceiling due to upward-pointed dissolution by rising convection currents.
	Category: Cave Morph	Ceiling Pendants
	Category: Controls	Hydrologic: Confined
	Interpretation:	Confined aquifer, hypogenic transverse speleogenesis, sluggish circulation, natural convection effects
	Author:	Alexander Klimchouk
	Published on:	2008-05-10
	Published by:	Alexander Klimchouk
	Relevant link:	Click here to open the Link Open Link in the new window

Morphological suit of rising flow properties	Image Name:	Morphological suit of rising flow
	Cave, region, Country:	Zoloushka Cave Western Ukraine Ukraine
	Description:	A niche in the wall of a master passage in the 92 km-long Zoloushka Cave (Neogene gypsum) displays a morphological suit of rising flow. It consists of a feeder (a conduit rising from below) and a cupola and domepits above it. The domepits rise to the bottom of the overlying limestone bed that served as a 'receiving' aquifer in the transverse circulation.
	Category: Cave Morph	Feeders (points)
	Category: Controls	Hydrologic: Confined
	Interpretation:	Confined aquifer, hypogenic transverse speleogenesis, sluggish circulation, natural convection effects
	Author:	Alexander Klimchouk
	Published on:	2008-05-10
	Published by:	Alexander Klimchouk
	Relevant link:	Click here to open the Link Open Link in the new window

Vertical scallops in Cupola properties	Image Name:	Vertical scallops in Cupola
	Cave, region, Country:	Grutas Del Garcia Nueva Leon Mexico
	Description:	This photo shows the side of a large cupola in Grutas Del Garcia in the state of Nueva Leon, near Monterrey, Mexico. The cupola is approximately 30 meters high and showed indicates of scallops on the wall which indicated a vertical upward flow of water
	Category: Cave Morph	Cupolas, ceiling pockets, domes, domepits
	Category: Controls	Hydrologic: Confined
	Interpretation:	Grutas Del Garcia is a commercial cave formed in vertically bedded limestone on the southern edge of a large breached anticline. There is significant evidence of hypogenic processes occurring in the cave in the form of cupolas, vents, feeder tubes, etc.
	Author:	Robert Burnett, Austin, Texas, USA
	Published on:	2008-04-17
	Published by:	Geary Schindel

Hypogenic karst features in outcrops properties	Image Name:	Hypogenic karst features in outcrops
	Cave, region, Country:	cuesta cliff Crimea Ukraine
	Description:	Solution morphology on walls of karstified fractures exposed at a cuesta cliff of the Paleocene limestones in the Pjedmont Crimea, near Bakhchisaray, Ukraine. Solution features, organized in vertical structures, are due to hypogene transverse speleogenesis in the formerly confined aquifer system.
	Category: Cave Morph	Miscellaneous
	Category: Controls	Hydrologic: Confined
	Interpretation:	Hypogenic transverse speleogenesis
	Author:	Alexander Klimchouk
	Published on:	2008-04-16
	Published by:	Alexander Klimchouk

Feeder in a hypogene cave properties	Image Name:	Feeder in a hypogene cave
	Cave, region, Country:	Barriguda Campo Formoso Karst Brazil
	Description:	A vent of a feeder (rise conduit) in the floor of a master passage in Barriguda Cave, the 32-km long hypogenic maze cave in the ancient (around 600 Ma) limestones and dolomites of the Una Group, the Sao Francisco Craton.
	Category: Cave Morph	Feeders (points)
	Category: Controls	Hydrologic: Confined
	Interpretation:	Hypogenic transverse speleogenesis
	Author:	Klimchouk, A.
	Published on:	2008-04-16
	Published by:	Alexander Klimchouk

Feeders in hypogenic caves properties	Image Name:	Feeders in hypogenic caves
	Cave, region, Country:	Toca de Boa Vista Campo Formoso Karst Brazil
	Description:	A vent of a side feeder (rising conduit) in the foot of a hanging wall of a master passage of Toca da Boa Vista Cave, the 107-km long hypogenic maze cave in the ancient (around 600 Ma) limestones and dolomites of the Una Group, the Sao Francisco Craton.
	Category: Cave Morph	Feeders (points)
	Category: Controls	Hydrologic: Confined
	Interpretation:	Hypogenic transverse speleogenesis
	Author:	Klimchouk, A.
	Published on:	2008-04-16
	Published by:	Alexander Klimchouk