ABSTRACT Discoveries in the 1980s greatly expanded speleologists’ understanding of the role that hypogenic groundwater flow can play in developing caves at depth. Ascending groundwater charged with carbon dioxide and, especially, hydrogen sulfide can readily dissolve carbonate bedrock just below and above the water table. Sulfuric acid speleogenesis, in which anoxic, rising, sulfidic groundwater mixes with oxygenated cave atmosphere to form aggressive sulfuric acid (H 2 SO 4 ) formed spectacular caves in Carlsbad Caverns National Park, USA. Cueva de Villa Luz in Mexico provides an aggressively active example of sulfuric acid speleogenesis processes, and the Frasassi Caves in Italy preserve the results of sulfuric acid speleogenesis in its upper levels while sulfidic groundwater currently enlarges cave passages in the lower levels. Many caves in east-central Nevada and western Utah (USA) are products of hypogenic speleogenesis and formed before the current topography fully developed. Wet climate during the late Neogene and Pleistocene brought extensive meteoric infiltration into the caves, and calcite speleothems (e.g., stalactites, stalagmites, shields) coat the walls and floors of the caves, concealing evidence of the earlier hypogenic stage. However, by studying the speleogenetic features in well-established sulfuric acid speleogenesis caves, evidence of hypogenic, probably sulfidic, speleogenesis in many Great Basin caves can be teased out. Compelling evidence of hypogenic speleogenesis in these caves include folia, mammillaries, bubble trails, cupolas, and metatyuyamunite. Sulfuric acid speleogenesis signs include hollow coralloid stalagmites, trays, gypsum crust, pseudoscallops, rills, and acid pool notches. Lehman Caves in Great Basin National Park is particularly informative because a low-permeability capstone protected about half of the cave from significant meteoric infiltration, preserving early speleogenetic features.

Calcite spar (crystals >1 cm in diameter) are common in limestone and dolostone terrains. In the Guadalupe Mountains, New Mexico and west Texas, calcite spar is abundant and lines small geode-like caves. Determining the depth and timing of formation of these large scalenohedral calcite crystals is critical in linking the growth of spar with landscape evolution. In this study, we show that large euhedral calcite crystals precipitate deep in the phreatic zone (400–800 m) in these small geode-like caves (spar caves), and we propose both are the result of properties of supercritical CO 2 at that depth. U-Pb dating of spar crystals shows that they formed primarily between 36 and 28 Ma. The 87 Sr/ 86 Sr values of the euhedral calcite spar show that the spar has a significantly higher 87 Sr/ 86 Sr (0.710–0.716) than the host Permian limestone (0.706–0.709). This indicates the spar formed from waters that are mixed with, or formed entirely from, a source other than the surrounding bedrock aquifer, and this is consistent with hypogene speleogenesis at significant depth. In addition, we conducted highly precise measurements of the variation in nonradiogenic isotopes of strontium, 88 Sr/ 86 Sr, expressed as δ 88 Sr, the variation of which has previously been shown to depend on temperature of precipitation. Our preliminary δ 88 Sr results from the spar calcite are consistent with formation at 50–70 °C. Our first U-Pb results show that the spar was precipitated during the beginning of Basin and Range tectonism in a late Eocene to early Oligocene episode, which was coeval with two major magmatic periods at 36–33 Ma and 32–28 Ma. A novel speleogenetic process that includes both the dissolution of the spar caves and precipitation of the spar by the same speleogenetic event is proposed and supports the formation of the spar at 400–800 m depth, where the transition from supercritical to subcritical CO 2 drives both dissolution of limestone during the main speleogenetic event and precipitation of calcite at the terminal phase of speleogenesis. We suggest that CO 2 is derived from contemporaneous igneous activity. This proposed model suggests that calcite spar can be used for reconstruction of landscape evolution.

A handful of investigative teams in several parts of the world are studying abundant biological communities in caves formed by sulfuric-acid speleogenesis. These caves are atypical in terms of origin, chemistry, and ecosystem properties. They prominently display sulfur minerals, characteristic cavity topologies, and notable biological diversity and biological productivity resulting directly from the conditions that produce the caves. Even long-inactive systems still harbor some of these indicators. The microbial and macroscopic ecosystems within sulfuric-acid speleogenetic caves are geologically mediated and maintained. This geological mediation is a theme connecting them with other sulfur-driven ecosystems on Earth, including deep-sea hydrothermal vents, sulfurous near-surface hydrothermal systems, and solfataras. Evidence exists for potentially significant microbial participation in the process of speleogenesis itself. Recent results confirming the high relative abundance of sulfur on Mars, an apparent sedimentary basin with high sulfate concentration, near-surface indicators of ice and water, and trace detection of reduced gases (especially methane) in the Martian atmosphere, possibly deriving from subsurface microbial sources, set the stage for suggesting that sulfuric-acid speleogenetic systems may be useful as astrobiological analogs for hypothetical Mars ecosystems. Unique speleogenetic mechanisms may occur on Mars and could provide subsurface void space suitable for habitation by such hypothetical microbial systems.