engleski

Some new potential subterranean glaciation research sites from Velebit Mt. (Croatia)

Despite the frequent reports about their shrinkage, detailed survey of the major subterranean ice deposits is still lacking in Croatia. Here we present cave maps and detailed description of cave ice accumulation from five caves of the Velebit Mt. Morphological constraints allowed ice volume estimation for four of them. Ice volumes were estimated as ~1500 m3 at the Gavranova Pit in 1999, 100 m3 at Štirovača ice cave in 1987, 150 m3 at Japagina 3 in 2000, 1500 m3 at Kugina ice cave in 2004. These new records provide reference data for future studies to evaluate glaciological changes/processes taking place in the corresponding cave environments. As a common topographical characteristic of these caves and the previous ones, it seems that the present elevational limit of permanent cave ice occurrence in the Velebit Mt is ~1000 m a.s.l. Regarding the climatic parameters it corresponds to the January isotherm of -2° C and 14° C in July, annual sum of precipitation of 1750 mm and 90 days with snow per year.

ice caves; microclimate; speleoglaciology

nije evidentirano