Category Geography

Round Spring Cave is found in a kind of rock called dolomite. It is similar to limestone. Like limestone, dolomite is formed at the bottom of the sea. This part of Missouri was covered by the sea. Later on, forces from inside the earth pushed up the sea bottom to make the Ozarks. These forces, pushing up on the rock layers, cracked the dolomite, much like a baseball hitting a window cracks the glass. These cracks are called joints. This was the very start of Round Spring Cave, and it happened just as the dinosaurs started to roam the Earth.

As rainwater fell on the ground, it picked up a small amount of acid from the rotting leaves. This acid, called carbonic acid, is the same thing that gives soda pop its fizz. This acidic water can dissolve holes in dolomite. Below the water table, the rock was filled with this acidic water. Between the layers of rock and inside the joints, the water slowly dissolved away the rock. This made a large water-filled space. As the Current River cut its river valley, it cut down through the rock layers until it opened up the cave. This let the water out and gave us an air-filled cave.

Credit: National Park Service

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Stalactite and stalagmite, elongated forms of various minerals deposited from solution by slowly dripping water. A stalactite hangs like an icicle from the ceiling or sides of a cavern. A stalagmite appears like an inverted stalactite, rising from the floor of a cavern.

Stalactites hanging from the ceilings of caverns commonly exhibit a central tube or the trace of a former tube whose diameter is that of a drop of water hanging by surface tension. A drop on the tip of a growing stalactite leaves a deposit only around its rim. Downward growth of the rim makes the tube. The simplest stalactite form, therefore, is a thin-walled stone straw, and these fragile forms may reach lengths of 0.5 m (20 inches) or more where air currents have not seriously disturbed the growth. The more common form is a downward-tapering cone and is simply a thickening of the straw type by mineral deposition from a film of water descending the exterior of the pendant.

Credit: Britannica

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There are caves all over the planet, but only a few have been explored. These dark spaces are sheltered from the weather and provide a steady temperature, making them ideal homes for an enormous diversity of life.

Animals that are adapted to live in caves are known as troglofauna. Some – such as bats, bears and swiftlets – use caves on a temporary basis. Others reside there permanently, living out their entire life cycles in the dark – but many have evolved special abilities to help them survive in their food- and light-limited habitats.

Some animals use caves as part-time homes. Bats and swiftlets use them to roost during the day and night respectively. In some caves there can be as many as 20 million bats in residence. By foraging outside of caves for insects and fruits, part-time cave residents provide for those that never leave.

Like other habitats, caves have their own food chain. The detritivores rely on bat faeces and are consumed by the next level of predators, such as spiders and pseudoscorpions. Centipedes and cave boas are often the top predators in these underground environments. The snakes are specially adapted to be able to catch swiftlet and bats as they fly past.

Credit:  Natural History Museum

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Polje, (Serbo-Croatian: “field”), elongated basin having a flat floor and steep walls; it is formed by the coalescence of several sinkholes. The basins often cover 250 square km (about 100 square miles) and may expose “disappearing streams.” Most such basins have steep enclosing walls that range from 50 to 100 m (165 to 330 feet) in height, giving rise to the name “blind valley.” The flat floor of a polje is characteristically covered with a soil composed of the residues of limestone solution. These areas may constitute the only arable part of the rock wasteland in a karst region.

Credit: Britannica

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Sometimes, melting at the margin of a glacier may cause small caves to form within the ice, between the ice and the bedrock, or between the ice and the sediment beneath it. Ice caves can also form where water exits from beneath the glacier or where the ice flows over a large bump its bed.

Glacier ice caves are cold, with icy water dripping from their roofs. Sometimes, rocks and debris that the glacier has picked up melt out and drop into the caves. People interested in exploring ice caves should wear helmets, as they would in other kinds of caves.

Glacier Ice Caves are sometimes referred to as “ice caves”, but the term ice caves is more commonly used for caves in rock which contain ice year-round.

Credit: NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

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With a staggering depth of 2,197 meters (7,208 feet), Krubera Cave is the deepest known cave in the world.

Considered “the Everest of caves,” the vast cavern, also known as Voronya or Voronja Cave, is located in the Arabika Massif. Arabika Massif is on the edge of the Black Sea in Abkhazia, a region that borders Georgia. Since its discovery in 1960, explorers and scientists have attempted to descend deeper and deeper into the cave. Thus, setting new records each time. In 2001, Krubera Cave officially became the deepest cave known to man. The massive cave has an explored depth of 1,710 meters (5,610 feet), beating the Lamprechtsofen by 80 meters.

Photos of expeditions over the years reveal an enormous subterranean wonder. In fact, the cave looks like it was taken straight from Journey to the Center of the Earth. With a freezing underground waterfall, entire areas filled with water, and tunnels so narrow it’s nearly impossible to squeeze through; the Krubera Cave is an awe-inspiring labyrinth of countless pits and chasms descending deep into the darkness.

Credit: MY MODERN MET

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