Temperature variations in caves induced by atmospheric pressure variations—Part 1: Transfer functions and their interpretation

Abstract

According to thermodynamics, atmospheric pressure variations (APV) cause temperature variations in air. However, such variations are difficult to observe, except in thermally stable environments such as underground cavities. We have studied the properties of these temperature variations in four natural caves in France, where continuous time-series have been collected since 1998: Esparros, Aven d'Orgnac, Pech Merle and Chauvet-Pont d'Arc Caves, the last two containing unique prehistoric wall paintings. The pressure to air temperature transfer function (TF), evaluated from 8 × 10-7 to 8 × 10-4 Hz, strongly depends on frequency; its modulus, at the barometric tide S2 (12 h), varies from 2 to 14 × 10-3°C/hPa. While the TFs show pluriannual stability, seasonal variations are observed when sufficiently long data sets are available. Rock surface temperature is also affected by APV and we extract the air to rock surface temperature TF at Esparros, Chauvet and Pech Merle Caves. The observed TFs are accounted for by an improved analytical model including gas adiabatic compressibility, heat exchange with the rock, heat diffusion in the rock, phase changes of water at the rock surface and an advective term due to barometric pumping motion in the air volume. This model has three free parameters: the effective rock surface to air volume ratio, the time constant of heat exchanges and the effective adiabatic coefficient of cavity air. It is sufficient to account for the various situations observed in natural caves. Using this model, the observed TFs can be interpreted; they reflect the type of thermodynamics active at a given location, in particular the presence of barometric winds, but the actual values of parameters remain difficult to predict. Thus, temperature variations induced by APV emerge as a fundamental tool to characterize underground environments, relevant in some cases for cave heritage preservation, illustrating the coupled processes active in the Critical Zone.

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