The Mineralogical Study of the Grotta Inferiore di Sant'Angelo (Southern Italy)

Abstract

In the present work, thirteen samples collected from the Grotta Inferiore di Sant'Angelo near the town of Cassano allo Jonio (Calabria region, southern Italy) were analyzed for their mineralogy. The Grotta Inferiore di Sant'Angelo is made up of subhorizontal, interlinked galleries between 400 and 450 meters above sea level. The floor is littered with deposits such as bat-guano, gypsum, and many speleothems that also cover the walls. The samples were identified and characterized by X-ray powder diffraction, scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive spectrometer, microthermometry, and micro-Raman spectroscopy. The ten primary minerals identified in this study belong to six different groups: carbonate, sulfate, apatite, oxide and hydroxide, halide, and silicate. Clay minerals and eight other detrital minerals were also found: enstatite, rutile, magnesite, pyrite, chrysotile, quartz, dolomite, and chlorite. Characterization of cave minerals could be useful to improve the knowledge of the relation between them and the lithology of the host rocks.

Hypogenic Caves in the Apennine Mountains (Italy)

“…14), as is replacement gypsum, which was even quarried in the past. In addition to gypsum and detrital minerals, mineralogical studies found deposits of thin globular concretions and crystals of barite on corrosional pockets, and thin films of halite or rare sylvite crystals coating the gypsum (Catalano et al 2014).…”