U-series and Urine – understanding cave development in Nidderdale, North Yorkshire, UK

The caves of the eastern part of the Yorkshire Dales karst in northern England have received little scientific attention as compared to the classic karst of the Three Peaks area to the west. This is especially true of the valley of Nidderdale, which has no through road, and as much of the area was purchased in the nineteenth century in order to provide water for the growing city of Bradford has been relatively little visited. The Manchester Hole/Goyden Pot/Nidd Heads cave system has developed beneath a cover of clastic strata with only very limited outcrop of limestone occurring in the valley bottom. U-series dates from Goyden Pot show cave development occurred prior to Marine Isotope Stage 3. The presence of detrital thorium, in the speleothem samples, probably due to the nature of the catchment, limits precision however; this study confirms there is a long history of cave development in the area.

The curious nature of the speleothem in the system has been commented upon since the earliest days of cave exploration. They appear to be undergoing re-dissolution because of the chemically aggressive nature of the water in the valley although one early explorer made an alternative suggestion of it being due to animal wastes leaking in from the farm above. The chemically aggressive nature of the water may also account, at least in part, for the very large passage size in the system – being some of the largest stream passage development in the region. Such a situation of very chemically aggressive waters entering the limestone aquifer at discrete points where the limestone was first exposed due to valley incision may account for the very large size of some of the relict passage fragments found at very high altitudes within the Great Scar Limestone of the Yorkshire karst.