8/18/2019 Cave - Wikipedia

Cave
A cav e or cav ern is a natural v oid in the ground, [1 ][2 ] specifically a space large enough for a human to enter. Cav es often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep
underground. The word cave can also refer to much smaller openings such as sea cav es, rock shelters, and grottos, though strictly speaking a cav e is exogene, meaning it is deeper than its
opening is wide, [3 ] and a rock shelter is endogene. [4 ]

Speleology is the science of exploration and study of all aspects of cav es and the cav e env ironment. Visiting or exploring cav es for recreation may be called caving, potholing, or
spelunking.

Contents
Types and formation
Solutional cave
Primary cave
Sea cave or littoral cave
Corrasional cave or erosional cave
Glacier cave
Fracture cave
Talus cave
Anchialine cave
Physical patterns
Geographic distribution
Records and superlatives
Lechuguilla Cave, New Mexico, United States
World's five longest surveyed caves
Ecology
Archaeological and cultural importance
See also
References
External links

Types and formation

The formation and dev elopment of cav es is known as speleogenesis; it can occur ov er the course of millions of y ears. [5 ] Cav es can range widely in size, and are formed by v arious geological processes. These may inv olv e a combination of
chemical processes, erosion by water, tectonic forces, microorganisms, pressure, and atmospheric influences. Isotopic dating techniques can be applied to cav e sediments, to determine the timescale of the geological ev ents which formed and
shaped present-day cav es. [5 ]

It is estimated that a cav e cannot exceed 3,000 metres (9,800 ft) in depth due to the pressure of ov erly ing rocks. [6 ] For karst cav es the maximum depth is determined on the basis of the lower limit of karst forming processes, coinciding with
the base of the soluble carbonate rocks. [7 ] Most cav es are formed in limestone by dissolution. [8 ]

Cav es can be classified in v arious other way s as well, including a contrast between activ e and relict: activ e cav es hav e water flowing through them; relict cav es do not, though water may be retained in them. Ty pes of activ e cav es include inflow
cav es ("into which a stream sinks"), outflow cav es ("from which a stream emerges"), and through cav es ("trav ersed by a stream"). [9 ]

Solutional cave
Solutional cav es or karst cav es are the most frequently occurring cav es. Such cav es form in rock that is soluble; most occur in limestone, but they can also form in other rocks including chalk,
dolomite, marble, salt, and gy psum. Rock is dissolv ed by natural acid in groundwater that seeps through bedding planes, faults, joints, and comparable features. Ov er time cracks enlarge to become
cav es and cav e sy stems.

The largest and most abundant solutional cav es are located in limestone. Limestone dissolv es under the action of rainwater and groundwater charged with H2 CO3 (carbonic acid) and naturally
occurring organic acids. The dissolution process produces a distinctiv e landform known as karst, characterized by sinkholes and underground drainage. Limestone cav es are often adorned with
calcium carbonate formations produced through slow precipitation. These include flowstones, stalactites, stalagmites, helictites, soda straws and columns. These secondary mineral deposits in cav es
are called speleothems.

The portions of a solutional cav e that are below the water table or the local lev el of the groundwater will be flooded. [1 0 ]

Lechuguilla Cav e in New Mexico and nearby Carlsbad Cav ern are now believ ed to be examples of another ty pe of solutional cav e. They were formed by H2 S (hy drogen sulfide) gas rising from below,
where reserv oirs of oil giv e off sulfurous fumes. This gas mixes with groundwater and forms H2 SO4 (sulfuric acid). The acid then dissolv es the limestone from below, rather than from abov e, by acidic
water percolating from the surface. Speleothems in Hall of the Mountain
King of Ogof Craig a Ffynnon, a
solutional cave in South Wales.
Primary cave
Cav es formed at the same time as the surrounding rock are called prim ary cav es.

Lav a tubes are formed through v olcanic activ ity and are the most common primary cav es. As lav a flows downhill, its surface cools and solidifies. Hot liquid lav a continues to flow under that crust, and
if most of it flows out, a hollow tube remains. Such cav es can be found in the Canary Islands, Jeju-do, the basaltic plains of Eastern Idaho, and in other places. Kazumura Cav e near Hilo, Hawaii is a
remarkably long and deep lav a tube; it is 65.6 km long (40.8 mi).

Lav a cav es include but are not limited to lav a tubes. Other cav es formed through v olcanic activ ity include rifts, lav a molds, open v ertical conduits, inflationary , blisters, among others. [1 1 ]

Sea cave or littoral cave Exploring a lava tube in Hawaii.

Sea cav es are found along coasts around the world. A special case is littoral cav es, which are formed by wav e action in zones of weakness in sea cliffs. Often these weaknesses are faults, but they may also
be dy kes or bedding-plane contacts. Some wav e-cut cav es are now abov e sea lev el because of later uplift. Elsewhere, in places such as Thailand's Phang Nga Bay , solutional cav es hav e been flooded by
the sea and are now subject to littoral erosion. Sea cav es are generally around 5 to 50 metres (16 to 164 ft) in length, but may exceed 300 metres (980 ft).

Corrasional cave or erosional cave

Corrasional or erosional cav es are those that form entirely by erosion by flowing streams carry ing rocks and other sediments. These can form in any ty pe of rock, including hard rocks such as granite.
Generally there must be some zone of weakness to guide the water, such as a fault or joint. A subty pe of the erosional cav e is the wind or aeolian cav e, carv ed by wind-born sediments. [1 1 ] Many cav es
formed initially by solutional processes often undergo a subsequent phase of erosional or v adose enlargement where activ e streams or riv ers pass through them.

Painted Cave, a large sea cave,

Glacier cave Santa Cruz Island, California

Glacier cav es are formed by melting ice and flowing water within and under glaciers. The cav ities are influenced by the v ery slow flow of the ice, which tends to collapse the cav es again. Glacier cav es
are sometimes misidentified as "ice cav es", though this latter term is properly reserv ed for bedrock cav es that contain y ear-round ice formations.

Fracture cave
Fracture cav es are formed when lay ers of more soluble minerals, such as gy psum, dissolv e out from between lay ers of less soluble rock. These rocks fracture and collapse in blocks of stone. [1 2 ]

Talus cave Salt cave in Mount Sodom, Israel.

Talus cav es are formed by the openings among large boulders that hav e fallen down into a random heap, often at the bases of cliffs. [1 3 ] These unstable deposits are called talus or scree, and may be
subject to frequent rockfalls and landslides.

Anchialine cave
Anchialine cav es are cav es, usually coastal, containing a mixture of freshwater and saline water (usually sea water). They occur in many parts of the world, and often contain highly specialized and endemic fauna.

Physical patterns

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Branchwork caves resemble surface dendritic stream patterns; they are made up of passages that join downstream as tributaries. Branchwork caves are the most common of cave patterns and are formed near
sinkholes where groundwater recharge occurs. Each passage or branch is fed by a separate recharge source and converges into other higher order branches downstream.[14]
Angular network caves form from intersecting fissures of carbonate rock that have had fractures widened by chemical erosion. These fractures form high, narrow, straight passages that persist in widespread
closed loops.[14]
Anastomotic caves largely resemble surface braided streams with their passages separating and then meeting further down drainage. They usually form along one bed or structure, and only rarely cross into
upper or lower beds.[14]
Spongework caves are formed when solution cavities are joined by mixing of chemically diverse water. The cavities form a pattern that is three-dimensional and random, resembling a sponge.[14]
Ramiform caves form as irregular large rooms, galleries, and passages. These randomized three-dimensional rooms form from a rising water table that erodes the carbonate rock with hydrogen-sulfide enriched
water.[14] Glacier cave in Big Four Glacier, Big
Pit caves (vertical caves, potholes, or simply "pits") consist of a vertical shaft rather than a horizontal cave passage. They may or may not be associated with one of the above structural patterns. Four Mountain, Washington, ca.
1920

Geographic distribution
Cav es are found throughout the world, but only a small portion of them hav e been explored and documented by cav ers. The distribution of documented cav e sy stems is widely skewed toward countries
where cav ing has been popular for many y ears (such as France, Italy , Australia, the UK, the United States, etc.). As a result, explored cav es are found widely in Europe, Asia, North America and
Oceania, but are sparse in South America, Africa, and Antarctica.

This is a rough generalization, as large expanses of North America and Asia contain no documented cav es, whereas areas such as the Madagascar dry deciduous forests and parts of Brazil contain many
documented cav es. As the world's expanses of soluble bedrock are researched by cav ers, the distribution of documented cav es is likely to shift. For example, China, despite containing around half the
world's exposed limestone—more than 1,000,000 square kilometres (390,000 sq mi)—has relativ ely few documented cav es.

Records and superlatives Domica Cave in Slovak Karst

(Slovakia)
The cave system with the greatest total length of surveyed passage is Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, US, at 652 km (405 mi).[15]
The longest surveyed underwater cave, and second longest overall, is Sistema Sac Actun in Yucatán, Mexico at 335 km (208 mi).[15]
The deepest k nown cave — measured from its highest entrance to its lowest point — is Veryovkina Cave in Georgia, with a depth of 2,204 m (7,231 ft).[16] This was the first cave to be explored to a depth of more than 2 km (1.2 mi). (The first cave to be
descended below 1 km (0.62 mi) was Gouffre Berger in France.) The Sarma and Illyuzia-Mezhonnogo-Snezhnaya caves in Georgia, (1,830 m or 6,000 ft, and 1,753 m or 5,751 ft respectively) are the current second- and third-deepest caves.[16] The deepest
outside Georgia is Lamprechtsofen Vogelschacht Weg Schacht in Austria, which is 1,623 m (5,325 ft) deep.[16]
The deepest vertical shaft in a cave is 603 m (1,978 ft) in Vrtoglavica Cave in Slovenia. The second deepest is Ghar-e-Ghala at 562 m (1,844 ft) in the Parau massif near Kermanshah in Iran.[17]
The deepest surveyed underwater cave at 404 metres (1,325 ft) is the Hranice Abyss in the Czech Republic.[18]
The largest k nown room is Sarawak Chamber, in the Gunung Mulu National Park (Miri, Sarawak, Borneo, Malaysia), a sloping, boulder strewn chamber with an area of approximately 700 by 400 m (2,297 by 1,312 ft) and a height of 80 m (260 ft). The
nearby Clearwater Cave System is believed to be the world's largest cave by volume, with a calculated volume of 3,800,000 m3 (130,000,000 cu ft).[19] The largest room in a show cave is the salle de La Verna in the French Pyrenees.
The largest passage ever discovered is in the Son Doong Cave in Phong Nha-Kẻ Bàng National Park in Quảng Bình Province, Vietnam. It is 4.6 km (2.9 mi) in length, 80 m (260 ft) high and wide over most of its length, but over 140 m (460 ft) high and wide
for part of its length.[20]

World's five longest surveyed caves

1. Mammoth Cave, Kentucky, US[15]
2. Sistema Sac Actun/Sistema Dos Ojos, Mexico[15]
3. Jewel Cave, South Dakota, US[15]
4. Sistema Ox Bel Ha, Mexico[15]
5. Optymistychna Cave, Ukraine[15]

Ecology
Cav e-inhabiting animals are often categorized as troglobites (cav e-limited species), troglophiles (species that can liv e their entire liv es in cav es, but also occur in other env ironments), trogloxenes
(species that use cav es, but cannot complete their life cy cle fully in cav es) and accidentals (animals not in one of the prev ious categories). Some authors use separate terminology for aquatic forms (for
example, sty gobites, sty gophiles, and sty goxenes).

Of these animals, the troglobites are perhaps the most unusual organisms. Troglobitic species often show a number of characteristics, termed troglomorphic, associated with their adaptation to
subterranean life. These characteristics may include a loss of pigment (often resulting in a pale or white coloration), a loss of ey es (or at least of optical functionality ), an elongation of appendages, and
an enhancement of other senses (such as the ability to sense v ibrations in water). Aquatic troglobites (or sty gobites), such as the endangered Alabama cav e shrimp, liv e in bodies of water found in cav es
and get nutrients from detritus washed into their cav es and from the feces of bats and other cav e inhabitants. Other aquatic troglobites include cav e fish, and cav e salamanders such as the olm and the
Texas blind salamander.

Cav e insects such as Oligaphorura (formerly Archaphorura) schoetti are troglophiles, reaching 1.7 millimetres (0.067 in) in length. They hav e extensiv e distribution and hav e been studied fairly
widely . Most specimens are female, but a male specimen was collected from St Cuthberts Swallet in 1969.

Bats, such as the gray bat and Mexican free-tailed bat, are trogloxenes and are often found in cav es; they forage outside of the cav es. Some species of cav e crickets are classified as trogloxenes, because
they roost in cav es by day and forage abov e ground at night.

Because of the fragile nature of the cav e ecosy stem, and the fact that cav e regions tend to be isolated from one another, cav es harbor a number of endangered species, such as the Tooth cav e spider, Townsend's big-eared bats in a cave
in California
liphistius trapdoor spider, and the gray bat.

Cav es are v isited by many surface-liv ing animals, including humans. These are usually relativ ely short-liv ed incursions, due to the lack of light and sustenance.

Cav e entrances often hav e ty pical florae. For instance, in the eastern temperate United States, cav e entrances are most frequently (and often densely ) populated by the bulblet fern, Cystopteris
bulbifera.

Archaeological and cultural importance Olms in a Slovenian cave

Throughout history , primitiv e peoples hav e made use of cav es. The earliest human fossils found in cav es come from a series of cav es near Krugersdorp and Mokopane in South Africa. The cav e sites of
Sterkfontein, Swartkrans, Kromdraai B, Drimolen, Malapa, Cooper's D, Glady sv ale, Gondolin and Makapansgat hav e y ielded a range of early human species dating back to between three and one million
y ears ago, including Australopithecus africanus, Australopithecus sediba and Paranthropus robustus. Howev er, it is not generally thought that these early humans were liv ing in the cav es, but that they
were brought into the cav es by carniv ores that had killed them.

The first early hominid ev er found in Africa, the Taung Child in 1924, was also thought for many y ears to come from a cav e, where it had been deposited after being predated on by an eagle. Howev er,
this is now debated (Hopley et al., 2013; Am. J. Phy s. Anthrop.). Cav es do form in the dolomite of the Ghaap Plateau, including the Early , Middle and Later Stone Age site of Wonderwerk Cav e; howev er,
the cav es that form along the escarpment's edge, like that hy pothesised for the Taung Child, are formed within a secondary limestone deposit called tufa. There is numerous ev idence for other early
human species inhabiting cav es from at least one million y ears ago in different parts of the world, including Homo erectus in China at Zhoukoudian, Homo rhodesiensis in South Africa at the Cav e of
Hearths (Makapansgat), Homo neandertalensis and Homo heidelbergensis in Europe at Archaeological Site of Atapuerca, Homo floresiensis in Indonesia, and the Denisov ans in southern Siberia.

In southern Africa, early modern humans regularly used sea cav es as shelter starting about 180,000 y ears ago when they learned to exploit the sea for the first time (Marean et al., 2007 ; Nature). The
oldest known site is PP13B at Pinnacle Point. This may hav e allowed rapid expansion of humans out of Africa and colonization of areas of the world such as Australia by 60–50,000 y ears ago.
Throughout southern Africa, Australia, and Europe, early modern humans used cav es and rock shelters as sites for rock art, such as those at Giants Castle. Cav es such as the y aodong in China were used Taíno petroglyphs in a cave in Puerto
for shelter; other cav es were used for burials (such as rock-cut tombs), or as religious sites (such as Buddhist cav es). Among the known sacred cav es are China's Cav e of a Thousand Buddhas[2 1 ] and the Rico
sacred cav es of Crete.

See also
Cave conservancy Cenote – A natural pit, or sinkhole, that exposes groundwater underneath Speleothem – A structure formed in a cave by the deposition of minerals from
Cave gate List of caves water
Cave waterfall Pit cave Subterranean river – A river that runs wholly or partly beneath the ground
surface
Caving – Recreational pastime of exploring cave systems Speleology – Science of cave and karst systems
Underground lake – Lake under the Earth's surface
Caving organizations

References
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encyclopedic lexicon of the English language (Vol. 1, p. 871). New York: The
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2. "Cave" Oxford English Dictionary Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0) © Oxford
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Т. З. Кикнадзе. Терминология карста. Базис карстования (http://www.rgo-spel
eo.ru/books/termin/termin1.htm#a9) D.A. Timofeev, V.N. Dublyansky, T.Z.
Kiknadze, 1991, Karst Terminology, The Commission for Speleology and Karst,
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Sjöberg, Rabbe; Obbola, Umeå, Sweden (September 2018). "Merging the
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External links
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Cave - Wikipedia
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