Almost all cave formations are made of calcite, the crystal of calcium carbonate. Different minerals and different movements in the water account for an incredible variety of cave formations...
You may have walked over caves hundreds of times, completely unaware of the marvelous realm that lays inside the earth so nearby!
Stalactites, stalagmites, soda straws, columns, curtains, cave pearls and crystals. How are the formations in caves formed?
There are actually a lot of things that live in caves. Some spend their entire life underground, in the dark. They are often white, completely lacking any pigment, and blind...
There is a lava tube that is open to the public in the Mojave National Preserve. You can see lava flows all over the Mojave desert. They are visible even from the interstate. Cinder Cones, Lava Flows, and Lava Tube
A long time ago, 1992 (I looked it up) I read about people living in converted caves in an article in Awake Magazine. In the Loire Valley of France, cave living became fashionable among a number of wealthy families. There
Cliff brought home one of the magazines from the plane because he knew I would love to see this article. There is an enormous geode, as big as a school bus, that is now open to the public. The Pulpí
The Mendenhall Ice Cave was (or is) a glacier cave, a cavity within the Mendenhall Glacier. There have been several different Mendenhall Ice Caves. When it is warm enough, water runs through cracks in the surface of the glacier. Eventually,
Have you ever heard of cave pearls? Or cave marbles? A pearl is formed when an irritant like a grain of sand or a parasite gets into the shell of an oyster, clam or mussel. The shellfish protects itself by
What makes a good gift for a caver? Know your cavers. What equipment do they already have? Is there something they’ve been talking about? If you don’t know, don’t guess unless it is returnable. Caving is pretty hard on your
Linville Caverns is the only commercial cave in North Carolina. (There are commercial caves in Tennessee and Virginia that aren’t that far away.) The caverns were discovered by fishermen in 1822. Linville Caverns has been a show cave since the
The name Burren comes from the Irish word boireann. It means “a place of rocks.” And that’s what the Burren is, a vast limestone deposit. The Burren is an enormous glaciated karst in northwestern County Clare, Ireland. Depending on whose
This is a Virginia Big-Eared Bat, Corynorhinus townsendii. They are also called Townsend’s Big-eared Bats. They are a species of vesper or evening bat. They are pale grey or brown with a lighter buff tan tummy. Total Length: 3 to
When I was a very little girl, my first “caving” was at Rock City. Fairyland Caverns has little windows I peered through to see scenes from fairy tales. I doubt it was a real cave, but I have been fascinated