• 46,766 acres, 73 square miles
• Established 1930
• Guadalupe Escarpment - southeastern New Mexico
Carlsbad Caverns National Park
• 80 caves in the park
– Carlsbad Cavern
– Slaughter Canyon Cave
– Lechuguilla Cave
• Carlsbad - 2 entrances
– Main room
– Natural entrance
How do caves form?
• 2 step process
• Dissolve rock - cavern forming
• Deposit materials - cave formations
• 1st step is different for Carlsbad - compared to other caves
How do caves form?
• Requirements
• Limestone bedrock
• Humid climate
• groundwater flowing through fractures and joints
• Carbonic acid
• Dissolves the rock away over time
• Karst Topography
How do caves form?
• How the rock was dissolved = different for Carlsbad
• Faulting and Uplift - Guadalupe mountains form
• Pleistocene - 600 Ka - humid climate
• Groundwater flows through the Permian Reef Complex
• Proximity to a major petroleum province
• Hydrogen Sulfide seeps into the groundwater
• Oxygen combines with H2S to form sulfuric acid
• Cave shape + gypsum and sulfur deposits
Cave Deposition - speleothems
• speleothems /dripstones
• Water dripping down through the cave = deposition
• Soda straws - stalactites - stalagmites - columns
• Cave pearls, flows, etc.
Permian of North America
• Dinosaur National Monument
• Arches
• Guadalupe’s and Carlsbad
• Appalachians
• Grand Canyon
Permian of North America
• Pangea fully formed
• low global sea level - few continental oceans
• cold/dry climates - severe temperature gradients
• Early = small tropical seas (reefs)
• Late = evaporites and continental “red beds”
Permian of North America
• upland forests = adapted to cold/dry climates
• Appearance of reptiles - pelycosaurs
• Large animals on land - away from water
Permian of North America
• End-Permian mass extinction
• Life on Earth = devastated
• 95% of all marine species and 70% of land species
• Causes?
• Drastic climate change
• Pangaea
• Volcanoes
• Asteroid impact