I have a fresh Austin chalk cave rock ready to go in a vacuum chamber connected to a mass spec to measure the outgassing, which may give us some data soon.
Joe Sent from my iPhone On Feb 14, 2012, at 10:25 AM, "George Veni" <gv...@nckri.org> wrote: > "As for the origin of the CO2, I think that is still an open question. I'm > not so sure about soils since there isn't much in central Texas. In small > caves it could be organics. But in larger caves, I tend to favor out gassing > from the limestone as it is dissolved by water - especially in caves that > are connected to an underlying aquifer such as the Edwards where there is > lots of water in continual contact with rock." > > The soils are where the CO2 is stored; the actual source is plant > respiration. It is not the only source of CO2 in cave air. The measured > changes in soil that occur when plants become especially active, which have > been correlated to changes in caves, show plant respiration is an important > factor. How important remains to be better quantified because CO2 in Texas > cave air increases not just with plant respiration but as we get into the > season where airflow due to barometric changes decreases. Determining how > much CO2 is outgassed from the limestone or deeper sources is something I've > long wanted to do. I'm glad you're working on it Joe. > > George > > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > Visit our website: http://texascavers.com > To unsubscribe, e-mail: texascavers-unsubscr...@texascavers.com > For additional commands, e-mail: texascavers-h...@texascavers.com > --------------------------------------------------------------------- Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: texascavers-unsubscr...@texascavers.com For additional commands, e-mail: texascavers-h...@texascavers.com
