16 Oct 2017
Obstanser Eishöhle located close to the border between Austria and Italy not only hosts perennial ice in its near-entrance parts; it also contains locally abundant speleothems, whose mineralogy is dominated by aragonite. As shown in a recent study by our group, aragonite even forms today in some galleries, despite temperatures close to the freezing point. This rather exceptional situation is currently been further examined in a collaborative research project with Peter Nemeth and György Czuppon (Hungarian Academy of Sciences). The short film directed by Herbert Hackl shows our work in the inner parts of this cave system, sampling modern aragonite and its dripwater for mineralogical and microbiological studies.
The film entitled Die Alpen Im Wandel (1): Fenster in die Vergangenheit can be viewed here.
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