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The Coastal Sulfuric Acid Cave System of Santa Cesarea Terme (Southern Italy)

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Hypogene Karst Regions and Caves of the World

Part of the book series: Cave and Karst Systems of the World ((CAKASYWO))

Abstract

Santa Cesarea Terme in Salento is the only area in which hypogenic caves have been recognized in the Apulia region. In this spa area, the rising of sulfidic thermal waters that mix with both recent fresh infiltration waters and coastal salt water has formed four active sulfuric acid speleogenesis (SAS) caves. These caves are characterized by the typical set of sulfuric acid meso- and micromorphologies, and also by the presence of both gypsum and native sulfur. In all caves, biofilms are visible in the sulfidic thermal waters and on the cave walls.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the staff at the Santa Cesarea Terme spa for their availability. The Apulian Speleological Federation is kindly acknowledged for the work carried out during the cave surveys. We thank all the collaborators that helped us during the monitoring and sampling stage and the reviewers who gave us several interesting suggestions to improve this chapter.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Italian Institute of Speleology, Department of Biological Geological and Environmental Sciences, University of Bologna, Via Zamboni, 67, 40126, Bologna, Italy

    Ilenia M. D’Angeli & Jo De Waele

  2. Department of Earth and Marine Sciences, University of Palermo, Via Archirafi 22, 90123, Palermo, Italy

    Marco Vattano

  3. Department of Earth and Geo-Environmental Sciences, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Via E. Orabona 4, 70125, Bari, Italy

    Mario Parise

Authors
  1. Ilenia M. D’Angeli
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  2. Marco Vattano
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  3. Mario Parise
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  4. Jo De Waele
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jo De Waele .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Hydrogeological Problems, Institute of Geological Sciences, Kiev, Ukraine

    Alexander Klimchouk

  2. Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, State University of New York, Oneonta, New York, USA

    Arthur N. Palmer

  3. Department of Biological, Geological, and Environmental Sciences, Universita di Bologna, Bologna, Italy

    Jo De Waele

  4. Instituto do Carste, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil

    Augusto S. Auler

  5. University of Nice Sophia Antipolis, Sophia Antipolis Cedex, France

    Philippe Audra

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D’Angeli, I.M., Vattano, M., Parise, M., De Waele, J. (2017). The Coastal Sulfuric Acid Cave System of Santa Cesarea Terme (Southern Italy). 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_9

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