Espeleometria e controle estrutural na gênese das feições cársticas superficiais da Caverna Catedral, Município de Felipe Guerra-RN

Abstract

The activities pertaining to this study include the structural mapping, petrography description , speleothems measurement and topographic mapping of the research area at the Jadaira Formation which belongs to the Potiguar sedimentary basin. The structural map of the joints corresponda to the following parameters: length, depth, side spacing between the cracks, height, openings in the cracks, geometry and sedimentary filling. The results show that the joints happen mostly on two directions, East-West and Northeast —Southwest.This arrangement coincides to the faults system and the shear zones within the Potiguar Basin. The cave' s intern joints orientations coincide to the oves occurred on the surface high-lightened (E-W).These evidences indicate, overall, that Jandiara Formation karsts characteristics show an influence on the cave's orientation and extension.It was possible to distinguish and classify the caves formation leveis on petrographic strips according to its composition and porosity.Three of them were identified. They are "wackstone", "Packstone" and "Mudstone". They are responsible for the distinction between the cave's massifs.Regarding to the topography and speleothems measurement a map was created containing the information of length, size of conducts, caves' dimension and speleothems identification.