The Environmental Features of the Monte Corchia Cave System (Apuan Alps, Central Italy) and Their Effects on Speleothem Growth
International Journal of Speleology 37 (3) 153-172 Bologna (Italy) October 2008 Available online at www.ijs.speleo.it International Journal of Speleology Official Journal of Union Internationale de Spéléologie The environmental features of the Monte Corchia cave system (Apuan Alps, central Italy) and their effects on speleothem growth Piccini L. 1, Zanchetta G. 2,8, Drysdale R.N. 3, Hellstrom J. 4, Isola I. 5, Fallick A.E. 6, Leone G. 7, Doveri M. 8, Mussi M. 8, Mantelli F. 9, Molli G. 2, Lotti L. 10, Roncioni A. 11, Regattieri E. 11, Meccheri M. 12, Vaselli L. 13 Abstract: Piccini L., Zanchetta G., Drysdale R.N., Hellstrom J., Isola I., Fallick A.E., Leone G., Doveri M., Mussi M., Mantelli F., Molli G., Lotti L., Roncioni A., Regattieri E., Meccheri M. and Vaselli L. 2008. The environmental features of the Monte Corchia cave system (Apuan Alps, Central Italy) and their effects on speleothem growth. International Journal of Speleology, 37(3), 153-172. Bologna (Italy). ISSN 0392-6672. The Monte Corchia cave system, one of the most famous and popular caves in Italy, has in recent times been the subject of investigation on its speleothems as paleoclimate archives. This paper describes the geology, geomorphology and water chemistry of the cave system with the aim to elucidate the processes that have generated these speleothems and the properties they contain that are so useful for paleoclimatology. Some general conclusions can be drawn: i) the Corchia system is a cave developed over different altitudes during progressive uplift of the mountain chain in which it is located, probably under drainage conditions very different to those of the present.
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