Wookey Hole Caves are a series of limestone caverns, a show cave and tourist attraction in the village of Wookey Hole on the southern edge of the Mendip Hills near Wells in Somerset, England. The River Axe flows through the cave. It is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) for both biological and geological reasons. Wookey Hole cave is a "solutional cave", one that is formed by a process of weathering in which the natural acid in groundwater dissolves the rocks. Some water originates as rain that flows into streams on impervious rocks on the plateau before sinking at the limestone boundary into cave systems such as Swildon's Hole, Eastwater Cavern and St Cuthbert's Swallet; the rest is rain that percolates directly through the limestone. The temperature in the caves is a constant 11 °C (52 °F).
A sinkhole is a depression or hole in the ground caused by some form of collapse of the surface layer. The term is sometimes used to refer to doline, enclosed depressions that are also known as shakeholes, and to openings where surface water enters into underground passages known as ponor, swallow hole or swallet. A cenote is a type of sinkhole that exposes groundwater underneath. Sink, and stream sink are more general terms for sites that drain surface water, possibly by infiltration into sediment or crumbled rock.
The Swabian Jura, sometimes also named Swabian Alps in English, is a mountain range in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, extending 220 km (140 mi) from southwest to northeast and 40 to 70 km in width. It is named after the region of Swabia. It is part of the Table Jura.
Esslingen is a Landkreis (district) in the centre of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Neighboring districts are Rems-Murr, Göppingen, Reutlingen, Böblingen and the district-free city Stuttgart.
The Aachtopf is Germany's biggest karst spring, south of the western end of the Swabian Jura near the town of Aach. It produces an average of 8,500 litres per second. Most of the water stems from the River Danube where it disappears underground at the Danube Sinkhole, 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) north near Immendingen and about 14 kilometres (8.7 mi) north near Fridingen. The cave system has been explored since the 1960s, but as of 2020 only a small part has been discovered due to a large blockage after a few hundred metres.
The Fils is a 63-kilometre-long (39 mi) river in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, a right tributary of the Neckar.
Lauterach is a town in the district of Alb-Donau in Baden-Württemberg in Germany. It is located at the edge of the Swabian Jura, where the Great Lauter flows into the Danube, about 35 km southwest of Ulm.
The Blautopf is a spring that is considered the source of the river Blau in the karst landscape on the Swabian Jura's southern edge. It is located in Blaubeuren, Alb-Donau-Kreis, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
The Blauhöhle is the largest known cave system in the Swabian Alps in southern Germany. The Blauhöhle presumably originated in a time when the Danube still flowed through the Blau valley. Since the shifting of the Danube, several small rivers, the Schmiech, the Ach, and the Blau, have flowed through this valley. The cave system begins about 21 meters under water at the base of the Blautopf. It continues west and northwest, rising and falling several times until after a horizontal distance of about 1,200 metres (3,900 ft) it comes above the level of ground water and opens into the second big air-filled chamber. The maximum depth of the cave under water is 42 metres (138 ft).
Grabenstetten is a municipality in the district of Reutlingen in Baden-Württemberg in Germany.
The Steinlach is a river with a length of 26 km (16 mi) in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is a tributary to the Neckar.
A karst spring or karstic spring is a spring that is part of a karst hydrological system.
The Lauter is a right tributary of the Neckar in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It arises on the Albtrauf escarpment of the Swabian Alb.
The Lindach is a small river in the central foothills of the Swabian Alb, which rises below the Reussenstein Castle in the Neidlingen valley and flows into the Lauter in Kirchheim unter Teck. It runs through the towns of Neidlingen, Weilheim an der Teck and the Jesingen district of Kirchheim unter Teck.
The White Lauter is the right hand source of the river Lauter. It rises southeast of Lenningen below the state road B465. Near Lenningen it joins the Black Lauter, forming the Lauter.
The Erms is a river of the karstified Swabian Alb range in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It flows into the Neckar in Neckartenzlingen. On its way from the Karst spring to the next large municipality Bad Urach, a former Erms sedimented, especially during floods, no less than eight valley cataracts, where chemically precipitated travertine repeatedly drops c. 2 to 5 metres .
The Lauter, also: Große Lauter, is a small river of the Swabian Alb, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Its karst spring is inside the walls of the former nunnery at "Offenhausen", a small settlement near Gomadingen. The river discharges into the Danube after 42 km. The river has a long geological history since late Miocene. Although the Swabian Alb is heavily karstified, this river's water runs aboveground all the way.
The Vogelherd Cave is located in the eastern Swabian Jura, south-western Germany. This limestone karst cave came to scientific and public attention after the 1931 discovery of the Upper Palaeolithic Vogelherd figurines, attributed to paleo-humans of the Aurignacian culture. These miniature sculptures made of mammoth ivory rank among the oldest uncontested works of art of mankind. Because of the cultural importance of these sculptures and the cave's testimony to the development of Paleolithic art and culture, in 2017 the site became part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site called Caves and Ice Age Art in the Swabian Jura.
The Brillenhöhle is a cave ruin, located 16 km (9.94 mi) west of Ulm on the Swabian Alb in south-western Germany, where archaeological excavations have documented human habitation since as early as 30,000 years ago. Excavated by Gustav Riek from 1955 to 1963, the cave's Upper Paleolithic layers contain a sequence of Aurignacian, Gravettian and Magdalenian artifacts. In 1956 the first human fossils were discovered within a fireplace in the center of the cave, a discovery which made important contributions to the foundational understanding of the Magdalenian culture of central Europe.
