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A cave or cavern is a natural void in the ground, specifically a space large enough for a human to enter. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. The word cave can refer to smaller openings such as sea caves, rock shelters, and grottos, that extend a relatively short distance into the rock and they are called exogene caves. Caves which extend further underground than the opening is wide are called endogene caves.
Karst is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks such as limestone, dolomite, and gypsum. It is characterized by underground drainage systems with sinkholes and caves. It has also been documented for more weathering-resistant rocks, such as quartzite, given the right conditions. Subterranean drainage may limit surface water, with few to no rivers or lakes. However, in regions where the dissolved bedrock is covered or confined by one or more superimposed non-soluble rock strata, distinctive karst features may occur only at subsurface levels and can be totally missing above ground.
Speleology is the scientific study of caves and other karst features, as well as their make-up, structure, physical properties, history, life forms, and the processes by which they form (speleogenesis) and change over time (speleomorphology). The term speleology is also sometimes applied to the recreational activity of exploring caves, but this is more properly known as caving, potholing, or spelunking. Speleology and caving are often connected, as the physical skills required for in situ study are the same.
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 locally also known as vrtače and 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 Richat Structure, also called Guelb er Richât is a prominent circular geological feature in the Sahara's Adrar Plateau, near Ouadane, west–central Mauritania, Northwest Africa. In the local dialect, rīšāt means feathers and it also is known locally in Arabic as tagense. Tagense refers to the circular opening of the leather pouch used to draw water from local wells.
Caldera de Taburiente National Park is a national park on the island of La Palma, Canary Islands, Spain. It contains the Caldera de Taburiente, which dominates the northern part of the island, and was designated as a national park in 1954. The telescopes of the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory are situated very close to the summit.
Qeshm is an arrow-shaped Iranian island in the Strait of Hormuz, separated from the mainland by the Clarence Strait/Khuran in the Persian Gulf. It is the largest island in Iran, and the largest in the Persian Gulf.
A show cave—also called tourist cave, public cave, and, in the United States, commercial cave—is a cave which has been made accessible to the public for guided visits.
An underground lake or subterranean lake is a lake underneath the surface of the Earth. Most naturally occurring underground lakes are found in areas of Karst topography, where limestone or other soluble rock has been weathered away, leaving a cave where water can flow and accumulate.
A solutional cave, solution cave, or karst cave is a cave usually formed in the soluble rock limestone. It is the most frequently occurring type of cave. It can also form in other rocks, including chalk, dolomite, marble, salt beds, and gypsum.
A speleogen is a geological feature within a karst system that is created by the dissolution of bedrock. As rain water falls through the atmosphere it picks up carbon dioxide and more as it passes through organic material in the soil. As water moves through joints and cracks in calcium carbonate bedrock, more dissolution of the bedrock occurs and the bedrock features that are left are the speleogens. This process called speleogenesis is what leads to secondary formations or speleothems.
The Caves of Meghalaya comprise a large number of caves in the Jaintia, Khasi Hills, and Garo Hills districts in the Indian state of Meghalaya, and are amongst the longest caves in the world. Of the ten longest and deepest caves in India, the first nine are in Meghalaya, while the tenth is in Mizoram. The longest is Krem Liat Prah in the Jaintia Hills, which is 30,957 m (101,600 ft) long. The word "Krem" means cave in the local Khasi language.
Topolnița Cave is a karst cave located in Mehedinți County, Romania. It is the fourth-longest cave in Romania: only Peștera Vântului, Humpleu-Poienița Cave, and Hodobana Cave are longer. Most speleological sources estimate its length at 20.5 km (12.7 mi), although a length of 22 km (14 mi) has also been reported. Some Romanian news sources report a more conservative 11,000 metres (36,000 ft). It is considered a natural monument of Romania.
The Meghalayan age is the name given in 2018, by the International Commission on Stratigraphy, to the current age or latest geologic age – or uppermost stage of the Quaternary. It is also the upper, or latest, of three subdivisions of the Holocene epoch or series. This way of breaking down time is based only on geology; for example it's unrelated to the three age system of historical periods into which human development is sometimes divided.
The Basque Coast Geopark, formally the Basque Coast UNESCO Global Geopark, is an area of the Basque Country in the north of Spain which became a member of the European Geoparks Network in 2010, one of several Global Geoparks in Spain. It comprises 89 square kilometres of countryside with a 23 km long cliffed coast fronting the Bay of Biscay. Inland it comprises hilly country which reaches up to Sesiarte which is 755m above sea level. The main communities within the Geopark are Zumaia, Deba and Mutriku. The A8 Cantabrian motorway runs east–west through the Geopark.
The longest salt cave in the world. located in Mount Sodom, by the Dead Sea, Israel. In March 2019 it has been revealed, by an international team, led by the Israeli geologist professor Amos Frumkin, after a second measurement that its length is almost two times longer than was measured back in the 1980s.
Mawmluh Cave is a maze cave in the state of Meghalaya in northeast India. At 7.2 km in length, it is the fourth longest cave in the Indian subcontinent. The cave, which has several entrances, has formed at the junction between an early Eocene dolomite and a sandstone formation. It contains numerous stalactites, stalagmites, columns and drapes, collectively termed speleothems.
References
- ↑ "This article is more than 3 years old 'Like another planet': Malham salt cave is world's longest, say researchers". The Guardian. The Guardian.
- ↑ "Namakdan salt caves, Iran" (PDF). IUGS International Commission on Geoheritage. IUGS. Retrieved 2 November 2022.
- ↑ "Salt Caves". Showcaves.com. Jochen Duckeck. Retrieved 2 November 2022.
