KARTCHNER CAVERNS

Stalagmites

A formation that builds from the floor of the cave and builds up toward the ceiling. It is formed from the minerals from in water dripping through the cave ceiling.

Draperies

A layered deposit of calcium carbonate or another mineral, formed by water flowing along the walls or floor of a cave.

Spelunker

A person who explores caves.

Limestone

A sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate.

Cave Pearls

A small, usually spherical, speleothem found in limestone caves. Form when water drips into shallow cave ponds.

Stalactites

A tapering structure hanging like an icicle from the roof of a cave, formed of calcium salts deposited by dripping water.

Caves

An underground chamber that opens to the Earth's surface.

Flowstone

Are composed of sheetlike deposits of calcite or other carbonate minerals, formed where water flows down the walls or along the floors of a cave

Why do caves form?

As rain or snow falls through the air and soaks into the ground it combines with carbon dioxide to form carbonic acid. This acid makes groundwater naturally acidic, which reacts with certain kinds of rock.

Columns

Formed when stalactites and stalagmites meet.

Shield

Forms as calcite-rich seep water under hydrostatic pressure is forced from tiny cracks in a cave wall, ceiling or occasionally, floor. As this seep water loses carbon dioxide to the cave air, calcite is deposited as parallel extensions to the cracked walls.

Rimstone dams

Step-like terraces on cave floors that enclose pools of water.

Cave Bacon

Thin calcite formation with alternating brownish and whitish colors resembling strips of bacon found inside of a cavern.

Soda Straw

This first stage of stalactites. A soda straw (or simply straw) is a hollow mineral cylindrical tube.

Fried egg

When drops of water drip from the cave ceiling, the calcite cements together with particles of dirt and rock and form this shape.

Totem

a stalagmite that starts and stops with water dripping on it during different stages of growth.

Canopy

is a roof like covering

Bird's Nest Quartz Needles

minerals such as quartz are often deposited in cracks or spaces (such as vesicles or vugs) in a host rock. Sometimes, quartz contains thin, needle-like crystals of rutile

Boxwork

positive relief structures on walls and ceilings where mineralized veins and fractures remain as relatively insoluble material.

Cave popcorn

small balls that project outward from cave surfaces and speleothems as result of high evaporation rates, commonly in constricted zones and splash zones

Helictite

twisted; branching stalactites