Eagle Cave (Cueva del Águila)

4/07/26, 7:36

Eagle Cave (Cueva del Águila), located in Ávila, Spain (40°9′15′′ N, 5°4′20′′ W), is a beautiful show cave visited by thousands of tourists every year. The cave was discovered in 1963, and the first investigations of its interior were focused on finding archeological or fossil remains. More detailed investigations of the cave’s geology, genesis, and climate commenced in 2008, and nowadays Eagle Cave serves as a field laboratory for studying karst environments.

The cave is formed within a small carbonate (marble) hill, which marks the top of a Cambrian metasedimentary sequence dominated by schist and occasional quartzite beds, while the terrain surrounding the study site consists primarily of non-carbonate rocks. It is formed as single gallery with about 10000 m3 of surface and is highly decorated with different types of speleothems.

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Speleothems are formed through a continuous chemical process of mineral dissolution and precipitation driven by water and carbon dioxide. Here, rainwater reacts while percolates through the organic soil layer, where due to elevated levels of CO₂ it gets more acidic. It then dissolves the underlying limestone, and upon entering the cave with lower CO₂ levels, degasses and deposits the dissolved carbonate inside the cave.

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These cave deposits (speleothems) record environmental conditions at the time of their formation and serve as paleoclimate and paleoenvironmental archives.

 

Research projects focused on Eagle Cave

  1. Transfer of CO2 from soil to karst underground atmospheres (COSCA), USAL4EXCELLENCE programme, Horizon 2020 and Junta de Castilla y León. IP: Kristina Krklec, University of Salamanca, 2024-2026 (EU Marie Skłodowska-Curie action)
  2. Apoyo a la contextualización geológica de cuevas en la orla occidental del Sistema Central Español (ACUOR), Programa I C1 (2024) de financiación de grupos de investigación. Proyectos de investigación, Universidad de Salamanca, IP: David Domínguez-Villar, 2024-2025 (institutional project)
  3. Modelling the transfer of long-term temperature changes in the atmosphere to the vadose zone of karst regions: from glacial cycles to the ongoing global warming (MOTKA). IP: David Domínguez-Villar, University of Salamanca, 2021-2023 (Horizon 2020, EU Marie Skłodowska-Curie action)
  4. Intercomparison of karst denudation measurement methods (KADEME),  IP-2018-01-7080, Croatian Science Foundation, IP: Kristina Krklec, University of Zagreb, 2018-2022 (national project)
  5. Late Pleistocene glaciation of Central Spanish System. Modelling, reconstruction and paleoclimatic quantification (El glaciarismo del Sistema Central Español en el Pleistoceno Superior. Modelización, reconstruction y cuantificación paleoclimatica), CGL2013-44076-P, MINECO, IP: Rosa M. Carrasco, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha (Spain), 2014-2016 (national project)

Research papers form Eagle Cave

  1. Švob, M., Domínguez-Villar, D., Krklec, K. (2022): Characterization of soil drainage dynamics on karst terrains by developing a site-specific reservoir cascade scheme hydrological model with preferential flows. Journal of Hydrology, 612/B, 128147.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2022.128147
  2. Domínguez-Villar, D., Krklec, K., Boomer, I., Fairchild, I.J. (2021): ISODRIP, a model to transfer the d18O signal of precipitation to drip water ― Implementation of the model for Eagle Cave (central Spain). Science of the Total Environment, 797, 149188.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.149188
  3. Krklec, K., Domínguez-Villar, D., Perica, D. (2021): Use of rock tablet method to measure rock weathering and landscape denudation. Earth-Science Reviews 212, 103449. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2020.103449,
  4. Domínguez-Villar, D., Krklec, K., Pelicon, P., Fairchild, I.J., Cheng, H., Edwards, L.R. (2017): Geochemistry of speleothems affected by aragonite to calcite recrystallization – potential inheritance from the precursor mineral. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 200, 301-329. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2016.11.040
  5. Krklec, K., Domínguez-Villar, D., Carrasco, R.M., Pedraza, J. (2016): Current denudation rates over a dolostone karst from central Spain: implications for the formation of unroofed caves. Geomorphology, 264, 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geomorph.2016.04.007
  6. Krklec, K., Domínguez-Villar, D. (2014): Quantification of the impact of moisture source regions on the oxygen isotope composition of precipitation over Eagle Cave, central Spain. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta. 134, 39-54.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2014.03.011
  7. Domínguez-Villar, D., Carrasco, R.M., Pedraza, J., Cheng, H., Edwards, R.L., Willenbring, J.K. (2013): Early maximum extent of paleoglaciers from Mediterranean mountains during the last glaciation. Scientific Reports. 3, 2034. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep02034
  8. Domínguez-Villar, D., Fairchild, I.J., Baker, A., Carrasco, R.M., Pedraza, J. (2013): Reconstruction of cave air temperature based on surface atmosphere temperature and vegetation changes: Implications for speleothem palaeoclimate records. Earth and Planetary Science Letters. 369-370, 158-168. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2013.03.017
  9. Domínguez-Villar, D., Carrasco, R.M., Pedraza, J., Fairchild, I.J., Edwards, R.L., Pelicon, P., Siketić, Z. (2012): How fast are some diagenetical processes? The case of inversion from aragonite to calcite in a stalagmite from Eagle Cave (central Spain). Geotemas. 13, 695-698.
  10. Domínguez-Villar, D. (2012): Oxygen isotope record from 33 to 9 ka BP based on stalagmites from Eagle Cave, Spain. Quaternary International. 279-280, 121. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2012.08.010
  11. Domínguez Villar, D., Carrasco González, R.M., Pedraza Gilsanz, J., Fairchild, I., Baker, A. (2010): Efecto en la temperatura de las visitas turísticas en la Cueva del Águila, Ávilavaloración de la viabilidad de la cueva para el estudio térmico de su dinámica natural. Geogaceta. 49, 43-46. Geo49(2).pmd
  12. Domínguez-Villar, D., Fairchild, I.J., Carrasco, R.M., Pedraza, J., Baker, A. (2010): The effect of visitors in a touristic cave and the resulting constraints on natural thermal conditions for palaeoclimate studies (Eagle Cave, Central Spain). Acta Carsologica, 39/3, 491-502. https://doi.org/10.3986/ac.v39i3.78