Lánczos T., Lačný A., Jánošík M. & Feketeová Z., 2013: Speleogenesis of the Havranická Cave as an important phenomenon of the Plavecký Karst (Malé Karpaty Mts.). Acta Geologica Slovaca, 5, 1, 83–96. (in Slovak with English summary)

Speleogenéza Havranickej jaskyne ako významného fenoménu Plaveckého krasu (Malé Karpaty)

Speleogenesis of the Havranická Cave as an important phenomenon of the Plavecký Karst (Malé Karpaty Mts.)

Tomáš Lánczos¹, Alexander Lačný², Michal Jánošík³ & Zuzana Feketeová⁴

¹Katedra geochémie, Prírodovedecká fakulta, Univerzita Komenského v Bratislave, Mlynská dolina G, 842 15 Bratislava, lanczos@fns.uniba.sk
²Katedra geológie a paleontológie, Prírodovedecká fakulta, Univerzita Komenského v Bratislave, Mlynská dolina G, 842 15 Bratislava
³Katedra ložiskovej geológie, Prírodovedecká fakulta, Univerzita Komenského v Bratislave, Mlynská dolina G, 842 15 Bratislava
⁴Katedra pedológie, Prírodovedecká fakulta, Univerzita Komenského v Bratislave, Mlynská dolina B2, 842 15 Bratislava

Abstract

The investigation of the Havranická Cave situated in the northern part of the Malé Karpaty Mts. included geological, mineralogical, geochemical, and microbiological methods aimed at the explanation of the speleogenesis of the cave. The karstifikation process in the Malé Karpaty Mts. started in the Pliocene at earliest, after emerging the mountains, what performed during the Upper Miocene. The origin of the investigated cave is connected with the N–S directed fault, activated during the Pliocene–Quaternary. The material deposited into the crevices of the cave walls was undergone by mineralogical study showing mainly allochtonous clayey material strongly calcified by percolating water. The XRD analyses identified clayey minerals like kaolinite, chlorite, and illite. The chemical composition of a water sample from a small pool collecting the percolation water was investigated. Following the thermodynamical calculations the water is equilibriated with calcite and dolomite under circumstances of CO₂ partial pressure (pCO₂) approximately ten times higher then the pCO₂ value of the atmosphere causing more intensive carbonate dissolution. The microbiological investigation of the cave sediments identified ten species of microscopic fungi, mostly represented by genus Aspergillus and Penicillum.

Key words: Malé Karpaty Mts., Havranická Cave, speleogenesis, karstification process, water geochemistry, cave microbiology, terra rossa

Manuscript received: 2013-02-28

Revised version accepted: 2013-05-02