New localities of coarsely crystalline cryogenic cave carbonates in Slovakia

Three new localities of coarsely crystalline cryogenic cave carbonates (CCCcoarse) have been recently discovered in the Western Carpathians, Slovakia. CCCcoarse are secondary mineral formations in the cave and belong to speleothems. They occur in the form of loose accumulations of calcite crystals and crystal aggregates freely deposited on the bottom of the cavities. Their genesis is interpreted as related to slow karst-water freezing in pools inside the caves, in relation to the existence of a permafrost zone during Quaternary glacials. The newly discovered CCCcoarse localities in Četníkova svadba Cave, Demänovská j. mieru Cave and Zlomísk Cave are characterized by description and photodocumentation of the present crystal forms, by preliminary C and O isotope data, and by their U-series ages. The ages of the cryogenic crystals are in the range between 47 and 12 ka BP, corresponding to the latter half of the Last Glacial. Any new locality of CCCcoarse formed during the Last Glacial represents an important source of information about paleoclimatic conditions of adjacent areas. The U-series ages of the new localities support the earlier conclusion that the formation of CCCcoarse is related to transitions from cold to warm climate periods within the Last Glacial