Avances de la Geomorfologa en

Espaa 2012-2014
Susanne Schnabel y lvaro Gmez Gutirrez
(editores)

Avances de la Geomorfologa en Espaa 2012-2014

Editores: Susanne Schnabel y lvaro Gmez Gutirrez
XIII Reunin Nacional de Geomorfologa, Cceres, 2014.
ISBN: 978-84-617-1123-9

XIII Reunin Nacional de Geomorfologa, Cceres 2014

SPELEOTHEMS IN MAGMATIC ROCK CAVES AND ASSOCIATED

MICROORGANISMS
Espeleotemas en cuevas de rocas magmticas y microorganismos asociados.
J. R. Vidal Roman1,2, L. Gonzlez Lpez,1,2, M.J. Lpez Galindo1, J. Sanjurjo Snchez1,2 y
M. Vaqueiro Rodrguez1,2
1 Instituto Universitario de Geologa. Campus de Elvia. Edificio SAI,-3. 15071 Corua.
juan.vidal.romani@udc.es
2 Club de Espeleoloxa A Trapa(CETRA).

Abstract: At first, these speleothems had been considered to be caused by the rock weathering s.l.
originated by water, but later scanning electron microscopy showed their direct relation with the
troglobiontic activity, hence the name of biospeleothems. They have three types of components:
inorganic, due to physicochemical disaggregation of the rock by water; biological, formed by the
troglobionts incorporated in the sediment; and biomineral, authigenic minerals related to the
reaction of the mineral substratum with the metabolic products derived from the organic activity.
These speleothems are micro ecosystems where bacteria, fungi, algae, testate amoebae, mites,
collembolan and arachnids live, develop and die. They form a trophic net where bacteria, which
disaggregate the minerals and the organic matter from the rest of microorganisms, prevail. Neither
the caves lithology nor the climatic zone where the cave is located affects the troglobionts as to the
dimensions or the chemical-mineralogical composition of the speleothems.

Palabras clave: bioespeleotemas, rocas magmticas, granito, bacterias, palo-A.

Key words: biospeleothems, magmatic rocks, granite, bacteria, opal-A.

1. INTRODUCTION
The study of speleothems associated with
cavities developed in magmatic rocks (effusive
or intrusive) poses great difficulties due to the
dimensions of the deposits almost exclusively
formed by organic remains and amorphous
minerals, which requires to be mostly studied
by scanning electron microscopy (S.E.M.).
Other difficulties are due to the scarce
knowledge of the relationship between the
genesis of the deposits and the organic activity
developed in the underground environment,
which has shown to be essential in the final
morphology of the speleothems. The
conditioning factors in the formation of these
deposits are the Si availability and its
association with water flows that move very
slowly by capillarity and/or superficial tension
because the gravity (dripping) is little important
in the sedimentary process. In these
environments, the sedimentation is related to
the
reduction-detention
of
the
water
contribution to the underground system, which

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will cause the water evaporation, the immediate

deposition of the charge transported in
dissolution or dragging, and the death, or the
development of resistant forms of the
microorganisms associated with these deposits.
Obviously, the biological activity in the
underground system will act during the wet
stage, thus the main phase in the speleothem
development is directly linked to this organic
activity. When the water disappears from the
underground environment, the organic activity
stops and the microorganisms change from
being direct elements in the speleothem
development to elements (passive) or fabric of
the sediment, or simply acting as physical
support of the charge transported by the water
in dissolution or dragging. The sedimentary,
mineralogical, morphological features of these
deposits as well as the organisms that live with
them are uncommonly uniform in the deposits
of these types described in all the climatic zones
of the Earth (Fig. 1).

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Fig. 1. Distribucin mundial, en gris, de afloramientos de

rocas magmticas con localizacin de las cavidades
estudiadas y su relacin con las zonas climticas. Los
tringulos negros sealan los puntos de muestreo
correspondientes a este trabajo.
Fig. 1. World distribution, in gray, of magmatic rocks
outcrops where the studied cavities are located and their
relation with climatic zones. The black triangles mark the
sampling points corresponding to this work.

1.1.Types of speleothems.
There are two main speleothems regardless
their location at the ceiling, on the walls or
bottom of the cavity. A simple classification
has been made only based on the morphology:
(1) planar and (2) cylindrical. The first is
formed from the laminar water flow of little
volume and low velocity, which causes the
water film to be subdivided by the previous
rock weathering. This distribution of clasts in
the perimeter of the water drops originates a
cell structure (microgour fields) of shuffle size,
form and distribution (ceiling speleothems) or
with preferential orientation, when there is
some water flow that produces a preferential
enlargement of the microgours (bottom or wall
speleothems) along with the movement
direction. In these types of deposits, the
interaction with life is of minor importance, at
most they are used as physical base by bacteria,
algae, collembolan and mites for their activity
and always showing scarce morphology. The
second type of deposit, cylindrical speleothem,
originates the development of lineal forms with
different thicknesses which may grow
individually or in groups and to any direction.
In the literature, they are called, usually and
wrongly, stalactites and stalagmites because of
their morphological similarity to the
speleothems of karstic systems s.s., though
these terms must be disregarded as in the
cavities of magmatic rocks the dripping is not

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an important process and their forms are due to

the interaction with microorganisms (bacteria).
The cylindrical ones are microbial mats that
receive the water contribution through capillary
channels or by simple superficial condensation.
Their internal texture allows assimilating their
growth with a process similar to the one
proposed for the stromatolites, though at
smaller scale, hence the name of terrestrial
micro stromatolites may be more adequate than
the one normally used. Other microorganisms
of greater size are frequently observed, apart
from bacteria, associated with these deposits:
algae (diatoms), testate amoebae, collembolan,
mites, etc., which use the biomineral substratum
as physical settlement base or for their
occasional movement.

Fig. 2. Estructura de un microestromatolito terrestre. (A

Trapa, Pontevedra, Espaa)
Fig. 2. Internal structure of a terrestrial micro
stromatolite. (A Trapa, Pontevedra, Espaa)

1.2.
Microorganisms
associated
with
speleothems
According to all these data, speleothems of
granite cavities may be considered as a micro
ecosystem where a varied association of
microorganisms: bacteria, algae, fungi, testate
amoebae, mites, collembolan, arachnids, etc.
live, develop and die.
The study of these types of ecosystems (Vidal
Roman and Vilaplana 1984; Kashima, Irie and
Kinoshita 1987; Vidal Roman et al. 2010) has
allowed us to show the relationship between the
troglobiontic activity and the formation of
speleothems, justifying so the name of
biospeleothems (Forti 2001; Vidal Roman et al.
2010). In these deposits, three types of

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components are differentiated in agreement

with the relation with the microbiological
activity: (1) inorganic due to the granular
disaggregation of the rock (detritic fraction)
caused by the physical or chemical action of the
water, (2) biological corresponding to
microorganisms which live in the underground
environment and incorporate into the sediment
totally or partially, and (3) biomineral (Westall
and Cavalazzi, 2011) formed by the direct or
indirect interaction between the inorganic
mineral substratum and the metabolic products
generated by troglobionts which increase the
reaction capacity of the infiltrated water,
accelerating the dissolution of pre-existing
minerals, even the most stable ones like quartz,
and forming new ones (authigenic minerals)
(Fig. 2).

Fig. 3. Placas de una ameba testcea Corythion sp.

Integrndose en el sustrato. Cueva Castelo da Furna,
Portugal.
Fig. 3. Plates of testate amoeba Corythion sp. integrating
into the substratum. Castelo da Furna Cave, Portugal.

2. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

Fig. 2. Nanoesferas del biomineral Opal-A, vila, Spain.

Fig. 2. Nanospheres of Opal-A, vila, Spain.

It is clear that the relationship between the

morphology of the speleothems and the organic
activity is different depending on the type of
implied organism. Bacteria are undoubtedly the
microorganisms with greater influence on the
development of speleothems (Fig. 4), and
especially of the cylindrical ones because their
growth causes filament framework or even tree
forms which, once the organisms die or remain
latent, will be used as base for the
sedimentation of the silicon dissolved in water
that will cover the framework formed by
bacteria.

In the magmatic rocks caves, Si is the essential

element of some biominerals (e.g. the biogenic
silicon which forms the frustules of the
diatoms or the plates of the testate amoebae
(Fig. 3), common
organisms
in these
environments, but also there are other
biominerals (gypsum, anhydrite) whose relation
with the troglobios is less direct. Once the three
components in dissolution, suspension or
dragged have been incorporated into the
infiltration water, the sedimentation is produced
when the water contribution decreases or stops
prevailing its evaporation.
Fig. 4. Recubrimiento por bacterias filamentosas de la
superficie de un espeleotema. Castelo da Furna, Norte de
Portugal.
Fig. 4. Cover of filamentous bacteria of the surface of a
speleothem. Castelo da Furna, Norte de Portugal.

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XIII Reunin Nacional de Geomorfologa, Cceres 2014

In the planar speleothems, the detritic

component prevails, and though it is usual that
all the microorganisms existing in the
environment use such component as physical
base (diatoms, testate amoebae, collembolan)
for their activities, only mites develop
constructive activity such as the excavation of
refuges and nests (Figs. 5 and 6).

Fig. 5. caro excavando su refugio en la superficie de una

colada. Tcharkulda, Western Australia.
Fig. 5. Mite excavating its cache on the surface of a
flowstone. Tcharkulda, Western Australia.

Acknowledgments
Ana Martelli translated the text into English and
revised the layout of this paper.

REFERENCES
Caldcleugh A. 1829. On the geology of Rio de
Janeiro. Transactions of the Geological Society, 2:
69-72.
Forti P. 2001. Biogenic speleothems: an overview.
International Journal of Speleology, 30A(1/4), 3956.
Kashima N., Irie T., Kinoshita N. 1987. Diatom
contributions of coralloid speleothems, from
Togawa-Sakaidani-do
Cave
in
Miyazaki
Prefecture, Central Kyushu, Japan. International
Journal of Speleology, 1, 95-100.
Gonzlez Lpez L., Vidal Roman J. R., Lpez
Galindo M.J., Vaqueiro Rodrguez M., Sanjurjo
Snchez J. 2013. First data on testate amoebae in
speleothems of caves in igneous rocks. Cadernos
do Laboratorio Xeolxico de Laxe, 37, 37-56.
Vidal Roman J. R., Vilaplana J. M. 1984. Datos
preliminares para el estudio de espeleotemas en
cavidades granticas. Cadernos do Laboratorio
Xeolxico de Laxe, 7, 305-324.
Vidal Roman J.R., Grajal M., Vilaplana J.M.,
Rodrguez R., Macias F., Fernndez S., Hernndez
Pacheco
E.
1979.
Procesos
actuales:
micromodelado en el granito de Monte Louro,
Galicia Espaa (Proyecto Louro). Actas IV
Reunin Grupo Espaol de Trabajo del
Cuaternario, Banyoles (Espaa), 246-266.
Vidal Roman J.R., Sanjurjo J., Vaqueiro, M.,
Fernndez Mosquera D. 2010. Speleothem
development and biological activity in granite
cavities. Geomorphologie: relief, processus,
environment, 4, 337-346.
Westall, F., Cavalazzi, B. 2011. Biosignatures in
Rocks (In Encyclopedia of Geobiology Ed.
Reitner, Joachim and Thiel, Volker). pp.189-201.
Springer Netherlands.

Fig. 6. Colonia de nidos de caros excavadas en un micro

gour de una colada . Las Jaras, Crdoba, Spain.
Fig. 6. Nesting colonies of mites on the surface of a
flowstone microgour. Las Jaras, Crdoba, Spain.

In both types of speleothems, the death of

microorganisms may produce fragmentation of
their shells, which are incorporated as fabric
element to the sediment though, due to their
size and scarce abundance, they have a
secondary role in the growth and final volume
of the speleothem.

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