Source: instagram.com
earthstory reblogged
Coves de Génova. Mallorca.
The Lily-pad Cave
This is part of Onondoga Cave in the state of Missouri known as the Lily-Pad room, for obvious reasons.
The cave sequence is formed in fractured dolostones. The rocks hosting the cave are over 500 million years old, formed in the Cambrian when the central portion of north America was under water. The rocks have been cracked and faulted due to a long history of tectonic activity in the Missouri area. Once those fractures formed, water was able to move through, dissolving the dolostone and forming caves. As water moves through, it carries the elements that made up the dolostone Sometimes these elements precipitate out forming familiar cave features like stalactites and stalagmites. However, in this room, something different has happened; the features have grown sideways.
If enough calcium and carbonate are dissolved in the water to saturate it and begin growing crystals, small disturbances, like drips of water or drafts of air moving through the cave can stir up the water enough to help cause growth of rock right at the top of the water. These shelfs grow around existing speleothems, building sideways with time as long as the waters are stagnant. There also are species of coral that live in this area that can help build these platforms as well.
As water levels in the cave have shifted, the lily-pads have grown in at different levels. Some of them are submerged today.
-JBB
Image credit: Wikimedia http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1d/Onondaga_Cave_lily_pad_room_by_stannate.jpg
Source: facebook.com
Underground in Carlsbad Caverns National Park
Underground in Luray Caverns, Virginia
capricorncaves As rain water flows through the caves it can create a decoration known as flow stone. We've named this the Iron Cascade, due to the amount of iron oxide evident on the rock. Isn't it awesome!
Animation takes you through the language of caves and caving!
earthstory reblogged
Howe’s Cavern
Howe’s Caves, New York.
This stunning image is of "Crystal Cave" in Yanchep National Park, Western Australia. The Limestone cave has been formed by an underground stream which flowed Westwards from Gnangara Mound. The cave is small as the water table is only around 10m from the surface, and Crystal Cave has no permanent water source due to drought conditions in WA (the water table has been falling over the last few years, and intervention to pump water into the cave was unsuccessful as it began to effect the above ground water supply and the associated flora and fauna) The cave contains every type of Speleotherm imaginable; Stalactites, stalagmites, shawls, straws, flow-stone and bacon (where iron minerals from the ground water give the Speleotherm a pinkish tinge and makes it look like a rasher of bacon). Crystal Cave is only one of several hundred in the park, and a few are accessible to the public for tours or for caving activities. To find out more about Yanchep National park, or Speleotherms, head to the links below. -LL Links; http://www.dec.wa.gov.au/component/option,com_hotproperty/task,view/id,3/Itemid,755/ http://www.uwec.edu/jolhm/cave2005/group4/Speleothems.htm Image- Leah Lynham
The Saracen's Tent. An amazing calcite flowstone with draped stalactites found in Luray Caverns in Virginia is one of the most impressive speleothems I have ever seen. Loz Image credit: Ze Wrestler