Calcite Rafts?

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Calcite Rafts?

Postby raft_hunter » Feb 20, 2015 11:53 am

I am a researcher studying calcite rafts. As part of my project, I am doing an inventory of all locations worldwide where rafts have been found. Where have you seen calcite rafts?

They look like a thin white or off-white film that covers the water table.
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Re: Calcite Rafts?

Postby GroundquestMSA » Feb 20, 2015 1:35 pm

I know of one cave in southern Ohio that contains calcite rafts. They are intermittent; I saw them on my first trip into the cave, they were gone later, and they were back the last time I looked.
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Re: Calcite Rafts?

Postby raft_hunter » Feb 20, 2015 2:26 pm

Do you know what the name of the cave was?

Thanks so much for the information!
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Re: Calcite Rafts?

Postby chac » Feb 20, 2015 3:20 pm

Hi Raft Hunter,

One can see all the different stages of calcite rafting most anywhere in Quintana Roo where the aquifer is exposed to atmospheric air. These rafts are major components to the silts and "muds" of dry caves. In the underwater cave environment they can create thick, impressive bedding layers on the floor of the cave. These rafting layers can exceed 2 meter or more in depth. They are also responsible for choking many deeper underwater conduits in dry cave sumps in this area of Mexico.

The fresh water aquifer of Quintana Roo caves is generally characterized as having a very gentle drainage current. If you will pardon my sweeping generalization, it has been this way for thousands of years (low hydraulic head). I have also seen rafting in Yucatan state There are a few papers written on rafting if you search the literature.

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Calcite Rafts?

Postby Ernie Coffman » Feb 20, 2015 4:44 pm

I've seen them in a small lake in Lost Soldiers Cave in Sequoia NP, in California.
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Re: Calcite Rafts?

Postby gindling » Feb 21, 2015 1:57 am

There is one raft that fills a passage wall to wall for over twenty to thirty feet in the connection between Green Fork Falls Cave and Kathy's Icebox in Montana. Took some creative stemming to not break it.
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Re: Calcite Rafts?

Postby MUD » Feb 21, 2015 8:26 am

:grin: I've seen calcite rafts in many different caves throughout the central Appalachian's.
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Re: Calcite Rafts?

Postby Squirrel Girl » Feb 21, 2015 8:46 am

Calcite rafts in a pool in a dry gully amidst travertine springs in New Mexico:

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Re: Calcite Rafts?

Postby Ctider » Feb 24, 2015 5:12 pm

Madison's Cave in Virginia
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Re: Calcite Rafts?

Postby leeboop » Feb 27, 2015 9:40 am

lots of littoral caves in Mallorca, Spain: https://www.flickr.com/photos/lianaboop/8597955875/
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Re: Calcite Rafts?

Postby rudibega » Apr 11, 2015 1:18 am

There are calcite rafts in the little toe extension of Bigfoot cave in the Marble Mountains of Northern California.
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Re: Calcite Rafts?

Postby Kyle.Lassiter » Jun 30, 2015 9:10 pm

I've seen them in two caves in Marion Co., TN. One of them is Whiteside Cave in a pool in a muddy side passage.
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