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Cave and Karst Systems of Romania pp 405–417Cite as

Pădurea Craiului Mountains: Vântului Cave (Wind Cave)

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

Abstract

Peștera Vântului lies in a ~200-m-thick middle Triassic limestone and is the longest cave in Romania, with a surveyed length of over 50 km and vertical extent of 162 m. It is a multi-level cave, which consists of passages that are mainly sinuous tubes and canyons having their floor covered with alluvial sediments and breakdown blocks. Vadose flow is present in the lowest level of the cave, where significant amounts of black iron–manganese-rich deposits coat the gravels and the cave walls along the underground stream. Fourteen oxide and hydroxide minerals have been described in their composition, with braunite first documented in a cave environment worldwide. Gypsum speleothems are abundant particularly along the upper levels 1 and 2. Typical for Vântului Cave is its deep meandering canyons, which are best displayed in the Racoviță Meanders section of the second level. From a speleogenetic point of view, it is a base-level cave, having its all four major levels developed in the epiphreatic zone, later connected in between by vadose canyons and shafts.

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Acknowledgements

CSA Cluj-Napoca is thanked for granting permission to enter the cave during my numerous research trips. Generations of cavers from this foremost Romanian speleological club shared with me countless hours in different parts of the cave in an effort to discover and understand the mineralogy and speleogenesis of this vast underground labyrinth. I am particularly grateful to my former students M. Vremir and T. Dascăl, as well as to many others who accompanied my 300 + professional trips in the Vântului Cave. I thank Dr. O.T. Moldovan for providing the list of cave fauna from the Biospeleological Database of the “Emil Racoviță” Institute of Speleology in Cluj-Napoca.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Karst Research Group, School of Geosciences, University of South Florida, 4202 E. Fowler Ave., NES 107, Tampa, FL, 33620, USA

    Bogdan P. Onac

  2. “Emil Racoviță” Institute of Speleology, Romanian Academy, Clinicilor 5, 400006, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

    Bogdan P. Onac

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  1. Bogdan P. Onac
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Correspondence to Bogdan P. Onac .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Groundwater Assessment Program, Geological Survey of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA

    Gheorghe M. L. Ponta

  2. School of Geosciences, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, USA

    Bogdan P. Onac

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Onac, B.P. (2019). Pădurea Craiului Mountains: Vântului Cave (Wind Cave). In: Ponta, G., Onac, B. (eds) Cave and Karst Systems of Romania. Cave and Karst Systems of the World. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90747-5_46

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