CAVES

Glacier Cave

A cave formed within the ice of a glacier. Often called ice caves, but the latter term is properly used to describe bedrock caves that contain year-round ice.

Soda Straws

A speleothem in the form of a hollow mineral cylindrical tube. They are also known as tubular stalactites. Grow in places where water leaches slowly through cracks in rock, such as on the roofs of caves.

Stalactites

A stalactite is an icicle-shaped formation that hangs from the ceiling of a cave, and is produced by precipitation of minerals from water dripping through the cave ceiling.

Stalagmites

A stalagmite is a type of rock formation that rises from the floor of a cave due to the accumulation of material deposited on the floor from ceiling drippings.

Sea Cave

Also known as a littoral cave, is a type of cave formed primarily by the wave action of the sea. The primary process involved is erosion. Found throughout the world, actively forming along present coastlines and as relict sea caves on former coastlines.

Volcanic Cave

Any cave formed in volcanic rock, though in typical use it usually means caves formed by volcanic processes, which are more properly termed volcanic caves. Sea caves, and other sorts of erosional and crevice caves, may be formed in volcanic rocks, but are unrelated to volcanic processes and typically form long after the volcanic rock was emplaced.

Ice Cave

Any type of natural cave (most commonly lava tubes or limestone caves) that contains significant amounts of perennial (year-round) ice. At least a portion of the cave must have a temperature below 0 °C (32 °F) all year round, and water must have traveled into the cave's cold zone.

Cave Pearls

Small, usually spherical, speleothem found in limestone caves. Cave pearls are formed by a concretion of calcium salts that form concentric layers around a nucleus.

Cave Bacon

The deposits may grade into thin sheets called "draperies" or "curtains" where they descend from overhanging portions of the wall. Some draperies are translucent, and some have brown and beige layers that look much like bacon.