This last summer I crawled through the bowels of an abandoned WWII army fort out in Resurrection Bay Alaska (abandonned 1944). The roof was covered with soda staws along cracks in the ceiling, some 3-4 inches long. Important to note that soda straw growth is only possible during the summer as winter temperatures will stop the mineral water flow.
Cheers, -Brian On Tue, Mar 12, 2013 at 11:33 AM, Neal Hines <hine0...@umn.edu> wrote: > This morning I read a geochemistry text on carbonate mineralization that > gave an example of how much stalactites might grow in one year: 0.19 > mm/year. It's a recent book (Merkel et al. Groundwater Geochemistry 2008). > Assumptions: partial pressure CO2 of 3% (charged up from soils) degassing > to 0.03% (by volume; atmospheric level), 100L of water dripping from the > ceiling, and the ceiling covered by 15% stalactites. > Cavers all know this growth varies by quite a bit, but this might serve > as a rough upper end growth rate. So, within a caver's life of 70 years, > you could see a formation grow by over 1 cm! Lending truth to the > observation I've heard of some cavers that, "this passage has shifted since > I was here last." Sodastraws can grow even faster I believe & I'm sure > people will have opinions on that. > Also, thanks to Ron Green for doing the webinar on Geophysics in karst > landscapes last night. I caught only the tail end, but there were tons of > questions and very interested participants. > -Neal Hines > > > >> >> **** >> > > -- Brian Riordan 979-218-8009 (Mobile) riordan.br...@gmail.com
