Caves: The World Beneath the World!

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Caves The World Beneath the World!

• If you are stretched and squeezed by everyday
  life, then you might be in perfect shape to
  explore caves. Enter a narrow natural passageway
  that may lead to simply mind-boggling underground
  world. Caves may lurk right under your feet a
  fascinating and unexpected environment, which is
  often known only to spelunkers and dedicated
  Gollum-seekers.

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Back to the Cave!
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Gruta do Lago Azul, Bonito, Brazil. (photo by
www.alexuchoa.com)
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"Symphony of Stones" (how aptly named) -
Garni caves in Armenia. (photo by eco culture)
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Fairyland Cave FormationsCaves are a fairyland
of delight, from the burning hot enclaves to the
glacial ice mazes. Thousands of years of dripping
water, eroding stone and budding minerals create
a silent world of mystery and beauty... Graceful
arches, giant crystals... silent but for the
sound of water dripping and bubbling through.
A "Wishing Well" at Luray Caverns in Virginia
(photo by Declan McCullagh)
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One thing to keep in mind during cave
exploration though these structures are made of
minerals, they are generally extremely thin and
fragile, many of them are quite rare, and can be
damaged or destroyed by touch alone. Calcite (the
mineral which forms many cave structures), for
example, is soft enough to be scratched by a
fingernail.
The most common type of caves form when slightly
acidic rainwater trickles into the crevices of
limestone and gradually widens the cracks as it
dissolves the stone. Centuries of water,
supersaturated with minerals, dripping from cave
roofs cause stalagmites and stalactites to form
(see here).
(image via)
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Some of the cave and rock formations- Flowstone
(also known as a Bacon formation)- Cave Pearls-
Soda Straws- Helictites- Anthodites (or
Aragonite)- Bottlebrush formation
(image credit Dave Bunnell)
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Probably the most comprehensive cave-exploration
site on the net is that of Dave Bunnell... You
can spend hours there, wandering around pages,
cataloging whimsical underground structures,
oozing rock and dripping stone.
(Gruta do Mimoso, Brazil)
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• Largest Cave Systems
• We mentioned the Jeita Grotto - the largest cave
  system in the Middle East- in our recent Lebanon
  article. The longest known stalactite in the
  world is found there at 8.2 meters long.- The
  deepest known cave is Voronya Cave in Abkhazia,
  Georgia and has been explored to a depth of 2191
  meters.- The longest continuous cave system yet
  explored is Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, covering
  591 kilometers.Let's have a short world tour of
  the most interesting caves, why don't we? We'll
  start with North America -Already mentioned
  Luray Caverns in Virginia are full of celebrated
  speleothems formations, calcite crystals of
  abnormal shapes - all formed when the chambers
  were completely filled with water, highly charged
  with acid. The acid began to eat away the softer
  material, resulting in ornate pinnacles and
  arches...

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(image credit Alejocrux)
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(image credit Declan McCullagh)
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One of the deepest known cave pits, Fantastic Pit
in Georgia's Ellison's Cave descends 586 feet
(179 meters) in a straight tunnel
(image credit Michael Nichols, National
Geographic)
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Glacial Caves and Ice CavernsSome ice caves must
rather be called "glacier caves", which can
simply astound with the intensity of ice color
(image credit Jenna and Tim Dickinson)
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Here is a wonderful page of ice caves photography
by Jason Gulley
(images credit Jason Gulley)
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No sign of Superman or Megatron there yet
Mount Kenya's Ice Cave Bobby Model, National
Georgaphic)
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Ice Cave in Matanuska Glacier, Alaska - photo by
George F. Mobley, National Geographic
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A lot of ice caves grow "hair" - ice extrusions,
some are quite strange-looking
(image credit Ian Mckenzie)
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Brazil Crystalline Underground WatersMato
Grosso do Sul region in Brazil (and especially
the quiet town of Bonito) boasts many marvelous
underground lakes Gruta do Lago Azul, Gruta do
Mimoso, Aquário Natural. Intricate limestone
formations and grottos hide the intensely-colored
pools and waterfalls (many adventure tours there
feature diving, some pools are more than 100
meters deep)
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(images via)
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(images via)
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(images via)
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Limestone caves in the same region offer
fantastic exploration
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(images via)
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Venezuela Cave of the Ghost Cueva del Fantasma
is big enough for two helicopters to fly into it,
but it's not technically a cave - rather, a
collapsed gorge. It does, however, sport a huge
waterfall right inside of it
(image via)
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Iran tremendous cave systemKatale Khor is a
cave dating back to the Jurassic period. It's one
of the "snow caves" in the Southwest Zanjan
province and connects to other caves - a huge
underground infra-structure which can hide who
knows what (definitely anti-American... wink
wink). See more pictures here
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(images credit Ali Majdfar)
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Vietnam Hang Thien Cung caveThere are plenty of
caves in Vietnam, and just like in China, many
are illuminated with garish colors. (see here).
But sometimes even artificial light takes back
stage to the incredible rock textures
(image credit Tai Vo)
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Mexico Giant Selenite Crystals!In 2000, one of
the most unusual and splendid caves was found in
Mexico by miners. Located only a mile from an
upthrust of magma, this cave is 112 degrees
Farenheit and at 90-100 humidity, limiting
greatly the amount of time explorers can spend in
it. It is a spectacular cave, with gigantic
crystal formations thought to be 600,000 years
old.
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(photos by Javier Trueba / Madrid Scientific
Films, image via)
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The crystals formed underwater as water
saturated with calcium sulfate heated in the
cavern selenite molecules crystallized and grew,
undisturbed, to giant proportions. The cave was
drained (by unknowing miners) in the 1980's and
stopped the process of growth. Who knows what we
may find further on, in the heat and water? A
description of one photographer's attempt to
document this cave is here.
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(images credit Richard Fisher)"It is
unquestionably magical that the cool white rays
of moonlight can originate deep underground in a
black chamber that is, at least in my perception,
white hot." (Richard Fisher, photographer,
comments on the huge selenite crystals.)
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A Giant GeodeGeodes are normally formed by
volcanic or sedimentary geologic activity - a
cavity in the rock is formed, inside which
crystals begin to grow, such as amethyst, quartz
or a number of others. Most geodes are small
enough to fit in your hand, but this one is large
enough to climb inside. The crystals found here
are gypsum.
(images credit Javier Garcia-Guinea)The largest
Geode Cave in US is located in Ohio Crystal
Cave, check it out.
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Ancient Cave CitiesKhosrov Caves in Armenia
served as a shelter to ancient tribes - in a
perfectly cinematic location
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(photos by Raffi Kojian and eco culture)
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We wrote about Cappadocia cave city in Turkey
before. But you might not be aware that more
modern establishment makes its home there - a
luxury hotel!
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Considering how hot it can get outside, it
definitely provides a welcome coolness
(images via)
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This PC case mod would fit right there, in that
cave hotel room
(case mod by Mashie)
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Then again, there's a wildly original Stockholm
subway station, seemingly built inside a natural
(in reality - blasted) cave
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"Metro on Mars"
(image credit Hannes R.)
More infohttp//www.funonthenet.in/articles/cave
s.html
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THE END
Documentation and text Maria Angelica
Lara Special thanks to Werner Drechsler Comp
ilation Umane2006