IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2022i6p3662-d775031.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Use of Radon and CO 2 for the Identification and Analysis of Short-Term Fluctuations in the Ventilation of the Polychrome Room Inside the Altamira Cave

Author

Listed:
  • Carlos Sainz

    (Radon Group, University of Cantabria, 39011 Santander, Spain
    The Cantabrian International Institute for Prehistoric Research (IIIPC), 39005 Santander, Spain)

  • Julia Fábrega

    (Radon Group, University of Cantabria, 39011 Santander, Spain)

  • Daniel Rábago

    (Radon Group, University of Cantabria, 39011 Santander, Spain)

  • Santiago Celaya

    (Radon Group, University of Cantabria, 39011 Santander, Spain
    The Cantabrian International Institute for Prehistoric Research (IIIPC), 39005 Santander, Spain)

  • Alicia Fernandez

    (Radon Group, University of Cantabria, 39011 Santander, Spain)

  • Ismael Fuente

    (Radon Group, University of Cantabria, 39011 Santander, Spain)

  • Enrique Fernandez

    (Radon Group, University of Cantabria, 39011 Santander, Spain)

  • Jorge Quindos

    (Radon Group, University of Cantabria, 39011 Santander, Spain)

  • Jose Luis Arteche

    (Spanish Meteorological Agency (AEMET), 39012 Santander, Spain)

  • Luis Quindos

    (Radon Group, University of Cantabria, 39011 Santander, Spain
    The Cantabrian International Institute for Prehistoric Research (IIIPC), 39005 Santander, Spain)

Abstract

A study is presented on rapid episodes of air exchange in the Polychrome Room of the Altamira Cave (Cantabria, Spain) using continuous monitoring of radon and CO 2 tracer gases, as well as environmental parameters such as internal and external air temperature. For this, criteria have been developed to carry out an inventory of these types of events during the 2015–2020 period. Most of the degassing-recharging events occur over several hours or days, especially during spring and autumn. This means that the room can be significantly ventilated during these short periods of time, posing an exchange of energy and matter with potential impact in the preservation of the rock art present inside. In addition, the hypothesis that temperature gradients between the internal and external atmosphere is one of the main factors that induces degassing has been tested. To this end, correlation analysis has been carried out between the different magnitudes involved in this study, such as radon and CO 2 concentrations, and air temperature gradients. A total of 37 degassing-recharging events have been analyzed for the 5 year studied period. The distribution of the duration of the events have been described, as well as that of the correlations between the degassing and recharge stages of each event, showing significant values of r coefficients for the correlation with temperature gradients between the internal and external atmosphere.

Suggested Citation

  • Carlos Sainz & Julia Fábrega & Daniel Rábago & Santiago Celaya & Alicia Fernandez & Ismael Fuente & Enrique Fernandez & Jorge Quindos & Jose Luis Arteche & Luis Quindos, 2022. "Use of Radon and CO 2 for the Identification and Analysis of Short-Term Fluctuations in the Ventilation of the Polychrome Room Inside the Altamira Cave," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(6), pages 1-11, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:6:p:3662-:d:775031
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/6/3662/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/6/3662/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Agata Grygier & Krystian Skubacz & Małgorzata Wysocka & Michał Bonczyk & Adam Piech & Mirosław Janik, 2022. "Radon Exposure in the Underground Tourist Route–Historic Silver Mine in Tarnowskie Góry, Poland," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(23), pages 1-12, November.
    2. Miroslaw Janik, 2022. "Environmental Radioactivity Monitoring and Measurements: Radon and Thoron," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(15), pages 1-5, July.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    radon; CO 2 ; tracer; rock art; cave;
    All these keywords.

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:6:p:3662-:d:775031. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.