A study on the color variety of speleothems Jinghua Cave in Benxi, Liaoning Province

Jinghua Cave is developed in thick-bedded limestone of the Middle Ordovician Majiagou Formation in Benxi, Liaoning. Speleothems in the cave have many primary colors, such as white, yellow, red, blue and black. On the basis of research on the cave, X RF analysis and thin-section identification under the microscope have done. It is confirmed that the white color comes from pure CaCO3, blue and black from Cu, Sr, Mn and Zn components in the speleothems, yellow and red from some elements like Fe and Mn with different valence under different conditions.