Theses and Dissertations

Issuing Body

Mississippi State University

Advisor

Mylroie, John E.

Committee Member

Rodgers III, John C.

Committee Member

Brown, Michael E.

Date of Degree

5-11-2013

Document Type

Graduate Thesis - Open Access

Major

Geosciences

Degree Name

Master of Science

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Department of Geosciences

Abstract

Temperature, pressure, and relative humidity within Jinapsan Cave on Guam were compiled and analyzed over a five-month period to gain a better understanding of this environment. Temperatures within the cave hover around ~26°C with no apparent influences except the mean annual temperature, with humidity values over 90%. There is high fidelity between outside and internal air pressures indicating no pressure differential exists and pressure changes are a result of kinematic wave flow. A mild correlation exists between a cave speleothem’s drip rate and outside pressure. The cave’s tidal pool compared to oceanic tides show a lag of 1-2 hours and amplitude dampening. The tidal pool’s temperature is 25.7°C, signifying no mass transfer of water occurs. Tropical cave studies are rare, but are important for paleoclimate research using cave speleothems as proxies. This study determined cave meteorological factors that affect speleothem development to allow for more accurate paleoclimate studies.

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11668/17793

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