Language: Bilingual in English and Portuguese
A monograph on the caves of Brazil, touching on topics of speleology, the karst landscape, morphology and genesis of caves, speleothems, and environment and life in caves and its protection.
Foreword 9
Introduction 11
Caves and Man: Nature and Culture 29
Caves in Human Culture 30
Speleology: Science and Sport 47
Historical Views of Caving in Brazil and Worldwide 48
Some Concepts in Speleology 49
The Karst Landscape 83
The Evolution of Concepts of Karst 84
Macro- and Micro-Forms in Karst Relief 85
Karst Typologies 89
Caves: Their Morphology and Genesis 115
Subterranean Space Classification and Morphology 116
The Genesis and Evolution of Caves 117
Speleothems: Fantasy in Stone 183
Speleothems 184
The Classification of Speleothems 186
Final Considerations 195
Environment and Life in Caves 235
Biospeleology: Brazil and the World 236
The Underground Domain and the Environment of Caves 237
Ecological Classification of Cave Animals 240
The Cave-Dwelling Community 241
The Cave-Dwelling Fauna of Brazil 243
The Patrimony of the Caves 263
The Destruction of Caves 264
The Legal Protection of Caves 266
Speleologists and the Defence of Caves 268
Conclusion 271