Speleological Bibliography

Abstract: Runoff flows not only on magmatic rocks massifs surface but also through their internal
discontinuities, which define the secondary permeability of the rock. The effects, especially erosive, of the
water movement on surface are well-known although it is not the same with the effects of water infiltration
through the rock. Especially, when it does so at low speed (trickles or seepage) granular disaggregation of the
rock is produced at small scale, associated with a specific type of sediment (speleothems) of clast-supported
open fabric able to store very small volumes of interstitial water, becoming a specific subterraneous
microenvironment where some organisms develop their biological cycle totally or partially. Some products
derived from the metabolic activity of these organisms incorporated to the infiltration water increase their
ability to attack (weathering and dissolution) the rock. This process ends during the dry season when the
troglobiont organisms die and the water-transported load, either dragged or in solution (mainly silicon), is
sedimented forming the speleothems. The study of these deposits using several techniques: mineralogical,
sedimentological, biological (including metagenomics), indicates an influence of microorganisms on the
formation of these deposits, therefore it is correct to consider them as biospeleothems.
Key words: magmatic rock caves, organic activity, biospeleothems, opal-A, whiskers, druse, micromineral,
gypsum, calcite.