Flank margin caves are extreme endmembers of vuggy porosity that form as diagenesis drives the progressive coalescence of smaller solutional pore spaces.Due to their morphological isolation during formation, the prevailing hypothesis has been that fluid flow in and out of flank margin caves occurs via the matrix permeability and that adjacent chambers only become hydraulically connected through nonmatrix porosity during burial, collapse, and fracturing. To our knowledge, however, no studies have evaluated how flank margin caves are connected to regional flow systems in modern carbonate platforms. In this study, we evaluate the connectivity of wells, boreholes, blue holes, and flank margin caves in increasingly older bedrock on San Salvador Island, Bahamas, using tidal attenuation analysis. Phreatic karst features are not reported in Holocene bedrock, and permeability magnitudes from wells suggest Holocene deposits connect to the ocean along matrix-dominated flow paths. Permeability magnitudes in bedrock surrounding wells, boreholes, and karst features deposited during Marine Isotope Substage (MIS) 5e suggest connection to the ocean through matrix and touching vug porosity. Boreholes, blue holes, and flank margin caves in pre-MIS5 bedrock connect to the ocean via touching vugs. We suggest that increasing bedrock permeability, cave number, and cave size observed within progressively older bedrock on San Salvador is a function of the cumulative number of freshwater lenses emplaced over successive sea-level stillstands. We suggest that the morphologies of the two largest caves are consistent with dissolution in multiple lenses occupying lower elevations, collapse resulting in breakout domes, and overprinting of collapse chambers during subsequent highstands. As a result, some caves may not reflect connectivity of the bedrock surrounding the main chambers but may reflect connectivity of more diagenetically mature bedrock at lower elevations where their antecedent chambers formed.

Banana holes are karst depressions that have primarily been reported from strandplains within the Bahamian archipelago. Banana holes have been hypothesized to form by downward dissolution in the vadose zone and in the phreatic zone by mixing dissolution and/or spatial variability in organic carbon inputs to the water table. While vadose models have been unable to explain overhanging roofs common in banana holes, phreatic models require anomalously high dissolution rates. In this study, we develop a new model for banana hole formation based on field observations, an airborne LiDAR (light detection and ranging) survey, and published geochemical data on San Salvador Island, Bahamas. We detected 3356 depressions in LiDAR data consistent with banana hole morphologies in Marine isotope substage (MIS) 5e and MIS 9/11 strandplains. No banana holes were detected in Holocene strandplains. All banana holes were found in swales between ridges. Of the banana holes found in MIS 5e strandplains, 109 had floor elevations between 6 and 19 m above sea level. These banana holes could not have formed in the phreatic zone because the MIS 5e freshwater lens reached a maximum elevation of 6 m above modern sea level. We also observed banana holes filled with water during wet seasons. While wells next to banana holes were tidal, pools in the banana holes were not, indicating pools were perched. Our observations, supported by hydrological models, suggest banana holes may form in the vadose zone in transient, perched aquifers on exposure zones. Runoff from ridges infiltrates through vadose fast-flow routes until encountering low permeability exposure zones, where flow is directed laterally. Dissolution by perching on exposure zones would create thin, laterallyextensive chambers radiating from injection points. Subsequent roof collapse results in their surface expression. Because dissolution occurs when waters become perched, chambers could form throughout low stands and may therefore not reflect rapid phreatic dissolution.

An eruption of the Soufrière Hills Volcano (SHV) on the eastern Caribbean island of Montserrat began on 18 July 1995 and continued until February 2010. Within nine days of the eruption onset, an existing four-station analog seismic network (ASN) was expanded to 10 sites. Telemetered data from this network were recorded, processed, and archived locally using a system developed by scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Volcano Disaster Assistance Program (VDAP). In October 1996, a digital seismic network (DSN) was deployed with the ability to capture larger amplitude signals across a broader frequency range. These two networks operated in parallel until December 2004, with separate telemetry and acquisition systems (analysis systems were merged in March 2001). Although the DSN provided better quality data for research, the ASN featured superior real-time monitoring tools and captured valuable data including the only seismic data from the first 15 months of the eruption. These successes of the ASN have been rather overlooked. This article documents the evolution of the ASN, the VDAP system, the original data captured, and the recovery and conversion of more than 230,000 seismic events from legacy SUDS, Hypo71, and Seislog formats into Seisan database with waveform data in miniSEED format. No digital catalog existed for these events, but students at the University of South Florida have classified two-thirds of the 40,000 events that were captured between July 1995 and October 1996. Locations and magnitudes were recovered for ∼10,000 of these events. Real-time seismic amplitude measurement, seismic spectral amplitude measurement, and tiltmeter data were also captured. The result is that the ASN seismic dataset is now more discoverable, accessible, and reusable, in accordance with FAIR data principles. These efforts could catalyze new research on the 1995–2010 SHV eruption. Furthermore, many observatories have data in these same legacy data formats and might benefit from procedures and codes documented here.

Growing evidence suggests microbial respiration of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) may be a principal driver of subsurface dissolution and cave formation in eogenetic carbonate rock. Analyses of samples of vadose zone gasses, and geochemical and hydrological data collected from shallow, uncased wells on San Salvador Island, Bahamas, suggest tidally varying water tables may help fuel microbial respiration and dissolution through oxygenation. Respiration of soil organic carbon transported to water tables generates dysaerobic to anaerobic groundwater, limiting aerobic microbial processes. Positive correlations of carbon dioxide (CO2), radon‐222 (222Rn) and water table elevation indicate, however, that tidal pumping of water tables pulls atmospheric air that is rich in oxygen, and low in CO2 and 222Rn, into contact with the tidal capillary fringe during falling tides. Ratios of CO2 and O2 in vadose gas relative to the atmosphere indicate this atmospheric oxygen fuels respiration within newly‐exposed, wetted bedrock. Deficits of expected CO2 relative to O2 concentrations indicate some respired CO2 is likely removed by carbonate mineral dissolution. Tidal pumping also appears capable of transferring oxygen to the freshwater lens, where it could also contribute to respiration and dissolution; dissolved oxygen concentrations at the water table are at least 5% saturated and decline to anaerobic conditions 1–2 m below. Our results demonstrate how tidal pumping of air to vadose zones can drive mineral dissolution reactions that are focused near water tables and may contribute to the formation of laterally continuous vuggy horizons and potentially caves. © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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