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Condensation Corrosion Speleogenesis in the Amargosa Desert and the Tecopa Basin

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Hypogene Karst Regions and Caves of the World

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Abstract

We summarize observations on condensation corrosion caves above a regional, moderately thermal aquifer in the Devils Hole Ridge near Ash Meadows (Nevada) as well as at a site near Shoshone (California). At Devils Hole, water of the regional aquifer has been saturated with respect to calcite (i.e., non-aggressive) for the last 2–3 million years. Caves at both sites have been initially formed by extensional tectonics and further enlarged by condensation corrosion.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the Death Valley National Park Service for permission to conduct research at Devils Hole and the park personnel (K. Wilson and R. Freeze) for field assistance. Partial support for this research was provided by FWF grant P263050.

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Correspondence to Yuri Dublyansky .

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Dublyansky, Y., Klenke, J., Spötl, C. (2017). Condensation Corrosion Speleogenesis in the Amargosa Desert and the Tecopa Basin. In: Klimchouk, A., N. Palmer, A., De Waele, J., S. Auler, A., Audra, P. (eds) Hypogene Karst Regions and Caves of the World. Cave and Karst Systems of the World. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53348-3_35

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