An Introduction to Hypogene Karst Regions and Caves of Iran

Vardanjani, Hossein Karimi; Bahadorinia, Shirin; Ford, Derek C.

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-53348-3_29

Cited by 5 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…1) is located in Zanjan Province ~300 km west of Tehran. The cave is located in the Sanandaj-Sirjan structural subzone of the Zagros Fold and Trust Belts (Karimi Vardanjani et al, 2017). The cave entrance is at 1719 m elevation in a W-E oriented anticline formed of Oligocene-Miocene aged, partially dolomitised limestone of the Qom Formation (Sardarabadi et al, 2016;Karimi Vardanjani et al, 2017), an inlier within surrounding conglomerates, sandstones and limestones of Pliocene age.…”

Section: Cave Environmental Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The cave is located in the Sanandaj-Sirjan structural subzone of the Zagros Fold and Trust Belts (Karimi Vardanjani et al, 2017). The cave entrance is at 1719 m elevation in a W-E oriented anticline formed of Oligocene-Miocene aged, partially dolomitised limestone of the Qom Formation (Sardarabadi et al, 2016;Karimi Vardanjani et al, 2017), an inlier within surrounding conglomerates, sandstones and limestones of Pliocene age. To the SE the Qom Formation contains gypsum bearing-marls and red beds are present both below (Lower Red Formation; Oligocene) and above (Upper Red Formation: Miocene) the Qom Formation (Berberian 1974;Karevan et al, 2014), the latter including sandstones, marls and conglomerates with minor gypsum.…”

Section: Cave Environmental Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Surface karst landforms are not developed in the region (Karimi Vardanjani et al, 2017) but beyond 200 m within the cave the subsurface epikarst is >200 m thick (based on the schematic section of Ahmadzade and Elmizadeh 2014). The site is at about upper treeline altitude, which is probably controlled by winter temperature rather than moisture deficit (Wright 1962), explaining the poor present day soil cover with patchy alpine grass vegetation.…”

Section: Cave Environmental Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The natural cave entrance was a ~1 m diameter crawl space, widened in the 1990s when the cave was developed for public access. The cave has been surveyed over 20,000 m on three levels (Arshadi and Laumanns 2004;Karimi Vardanjani et al, 2017) and contains a number of galleries with standing water pools during the winter months. Relative humidity in the second gallery of the upper level (~750 m from the cave entrance) at the site of sample collection in November 2006 was 100% with spot temperatures between 15.5 ºC -16.6 ºC.…”

Section: Cave Environmental Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Holocene stable isotope record of insolation and rapid climate change in a stalagmite from the Zagros of Iran

Andrews

Carolin

Peckover

et al. 2020

Quaternary Science Reviews

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We explore Holocene climatic change as recorded by stable isotopes in a single, well-dated, stalagmite from the northern Zagros Mountains of Iran, a region where stalagmite records have so far only provided short glimpses of Holocene climatic changes. Stalagmite KT-3 from Katalekhor Cave began growing ~9.5 ka under wet early Holocene conditions (δ 18 O values around or below -9.0‰, maximum growth diameter and lowest 234 U/ 238 U0 activity values). Progressive reduction in winter precipitation amount after 7.0 ka was driven by decreasing summer insolation, indicated by increasing δ 18 O and 234 U/ 238 U0 activity values and reduction in growth diameter until ~2.0 ka. Centennial-scale variability is not a feature of the δ 18 O record suggesting a stable winter recharge regime without marked interannual rainfall variability. KT-3 δ 13 C compositions are enriched relative to lower altitude stalagmites in the Levant, implying low soil CO2 contribution (thin montane soils) with stronger ingress of atmospheric CO2. However, the δ 13 C values also show ~ 1.5‰ centennial-scale variability with higher δ 13 C values between 8.3-7.7 ka, 6.5-5.5 ka, 5.4-4.5 ka and ~4.3-2.0 ka: three of these correspond with Rapid Climate Change (RCC) events based on non-seasalt potassium (K + ) in Greenland ice cores. Higher δ 13 C values indicate poor soil development caused by aridity. The first centennial-scale δ 13 C anomaly (8.3-7.7 ka) is in part overprinted by the ~160 year-long, 8.2 ka cold/dry event, but culmination ~7.7 ka corresponds with other records suggesting an intensified Siberian High Pressure system affecting regional climate. The centennial-scale δ 13 C anomaly between 4.3 and 2.0 ka overlaps the 2.65 to 2.50 ka 'Assyrian megadrought' evident in stalagmite stable isotope records in northern Iraq. The KT-3 record is key in better understanding Holocene climate change in the central Zagros region, representative of montane 'fertile crescent' environments. The KT-3 δ 18 O record also suggests that nearby lacustrine carbonate isotope records (Lakes Zeribar and Mirabad) can be reinterpreted as insolation-driven records, starting wet, but with recharge decreasing until ~7.0 ka, followed broadly by developing aridity.

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Section: Cave Environmental Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Cave Environmental Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Cave Environmental Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Cave Environmental Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Holocene stable isotope record of insolation and rapid climate change in a stalagmite from the Zagros of Iran

Andrews

Carolin

Peckover

et al. 2020

Quaternary Science Reviews

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“…Ref. [25] showed that carbonate rocks in Iran cover about 11% of the country and some sites such as Zagros illustrate more development in karstification [26]. To give some sense of the importance of hard rock (i.e., including karst and fractured aquifers) water resources in Iran, it was estimated that 320 and 12,632 m 3 /year groundwater are estimated to be extracted or discharged from 920 wells and 37,490 springs (75% of which from carbonate formations), respectively [27].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A New Index to Assess the Effect of Climate Change on Karst Spring Flow Rate

Behrouj Peely,

Mohammadi,

Sivelle

et al. 2024

Sustainability

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Karstic aquifers, because of their conduit system, are susceptible to climate change. Ten karst springs in the Zagros region were selected to investigate the impact of climate change under three CMIP6 scenarios: SSP1-1.9, SSP2-4.5, and SSP5-8.5. This study was conducted in three steps: downscaling climate projection, analyzing spring discharge time series, and introducing a new index to assess the impact of climate change on spring flow rate. Applying LARS-WG6, precipitation was downscaled at 14 stations in the study area. Moreover, time series and trend analysis showed that the selected springs have experienced a decrease in their flow rate. Assuming the covariance function between precipitation and spring discharge is constant, new indices (i.e., IQd, IdQd, and Icc) were introduced to highlight the effect of climate change according to the three scenarios. dQd is the variability of spring discharge from past to future, IdQd is spring discharge variability over the historical data, and Icc is the effect of precipitation and spring discharge change together. Icc has a range from −0.25 to 0.25 below and above, which is indicative that two extreme conditions including the spring dryness and overflow are in effect, respectively. The main results revealed that the degree of impact at each spring is a function of climate change scenarios and hydrogeological characteristics of the karstic systems. A more noticeable negative trend in spring flow rate is observed for the karst springs characterized by a dominant conduit flow regime and low matrix storage, located in the areas with low cumulative rainfall, and has a stronger relationship with precipitation. Based on the results, decisions on the management of karst water resources should be made considering where the springs bear free surface and pressurized flow conditions.

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