Genetic features of gypsum caves in Podolia

Abstract

Conditions and mechanisms of neotectonic fissuring and cave formation are considered with special reference to the hypsum massive of Podolia. The Podolian platform is shown to be a surprisingly stable morphostructure with placated topography which developed from the Silurian to the Middle Miocene. It underwent subsidence in the Miocene and was flooded by the shallow water Tortonian Sea, where lagoon (including gypsum) sediments were accumulated. At the end of the Miocene the platform was uplifted up to 250 to 300 m a.s.l. During the Pleistocene the plain relief was covered by the loess periglacial formations and dissected by river network. The latter has not penetrated the central part of the gypsum massive of Podolia. Within the limits of the latter, due to the gypsum member viscous flow towards large river valleys a complicated dense network of subterranean holes developed, later on, they were remodelled by karstic processes and transformed into a system of Podolian caves unique in their genesis.