| Grotte di Toirano (Toirano Caves) | |
|---|---|
 Interior view | |
  Location of the caves in Italy | |
| Location | Toirano (SV, Liguria, Italy) |
| Coordinates | 44°8′9.6″N8°12′3.6″E / 44.136000°N 8.201000°E |
| Length | 2,000 m |
| Elevation | 50 m |
| Discovery | 1950 |
| Geology | Karst cave |
| Entrances | 1 |
| Access | Public |
| Show cave opened | 1953 |
| Show cave length | ? |
| Website | Official website |
The Toirano Caves (Italian: Grotte di Toirano) are a karst cave system in the municipality of Toirano, in the province of Savona, Liguria, Italy.
The area is situated close to the town of Toirano and few kilometers to the Ligurian Ponente Riviera. The exit "Borghetto Santo Spirito" of A10 motorway is 5 km far from the caves. One of the most important caves is "Basura", discovered in 1950, [1] and shelter of the Cave bear (Ursus spelaeus).
A stalactite is a mineral formation that hangs from the ceiling of caves, hot springs, or man-made structures such as bridges and mines. Any material that is soluble and that can be deposited as a colloid, or is in suspension, or is capable of being melted, may form a stalactite. Stalactites may be composed of lava, minerals, mud, peat, pitch, sand, sinter, and amberat. A stalactite is not necessarily a speleothem, though speleothems are the most common form of stalactite because of the abundance of limestone caves.
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. Stalagmites are typically composed of calcium carbonate, but may consist of lava, mud, peat, pitch, sand, sinter, and amberat.
A speleothem is a geological formation by mineral deposits that accumulate over time in natural caves. Speleothems most commonly form in calcareous caves due to carbonate dissolution reactions. They can take a variety of forms, depending on their depositional history and environment. Their chemical composition, gradual growth, and preservation in caves make them useful paleoclimatic proxies.
Kartchner Caverns State Park is a state park of Arizona, United States, featuring a show cave with 2.4 miles (3.9 km) of passages. The park is located 9 miles (14 km) south of the town of Benson and west of the north-flowing San Pedro River. Long hidden from view, the caverns were discovered in 1974 by local cavers, assisted by state biologist Erick Campbell who helped in its preservation.
A soda straw is a speleothem in the form of a hollow mineral cylindrical tube. They are also known as tubular stalactites. Soda straws grow in places where water leaches slowly through cracks in rock, such as on the roofs of caves. Soda straws in caves rarely grow more than a few millimetres per year and may average one tenth of a millimetre per year. A soda straw can turn into a stalactite if the hole at the bottom is blocked, or if the water begins flowing on the outside surface of the hollow tube. Soda straws can also form outside the cave environment on exposed concrete surfaces as a type of calthemite, growing significantly faster than those formed on rock.
Flowstones are sheetlike deposits of calcite or other carbonate minerals, formed where water flows down the walls or along the floors of a cave. They are typically found in "solution caves", in limestone, where they are the most common speleothem. However, they may form in any type of cave where water enters that has picked up dissolved minerals. Flowstones are formed via the degassing of vadose percolation waters.
The Borra Caves(Borrā Guhalu) are located on the East Coast of India, in the Ananthagiri hills of the Araku Valley of the Alluri Sitharama Raju district in Andhra Pradesh. The caves, one of the largest in the country, at an elevation of about 705 m (2,313 ft), distinctly exhibit a variety of speleothems ranging in size and irregularly shaped stalactites and stalagmites. The caves are basically karstic limestone structures extending to a depth of 80 m (260 ft), and are considered the deepest caves in India. The native name for the caves is Borrā Guhalu where Borra means abdomen in and Guhalu means caves in Telugu language.
Castellana Grotte is a town and comune in the Metropolitan City of Bari, Apulia, southern Italy. Grotte means "caves" in Italian.
The Domica cave is a karst cave situated on the south-western border of the Silicka planina Plateau 10 km (6.2 mi) south-east of Plesivec in the Rožňava District of the Košice Region in southern Slovakia. In combination with the Baradla cave, it makes up the most significant section of the Aggtelek Karst and Slovak Karst cross-border cave network that continues into the Aggtelek National Park in Hungary. The cave is well-known for its complex structure and high density of speleothems.
Rimstone, also called gours, is a type of speleothem in the form of a stone dam. Rimstone is made up of calcite and other minerals that build up in cave pools. The formation created, which looks like stairs, often extends into flowstone above or below the original rimstone. Often, rimstone is covered with small, micro-gours on horizontal surfaces. Rimstone basins may form terraces that extend over hundreds of feet, with single basins known up to 200 feet long from Tham Xe Biang Fai in Laos.
A speleoseismite is a damaged speleothem argued to have been deformed by a seismic event. Speleoseismites can include severed stalagmites, fallen stalactites, collapsed cave ceilings, tilted speleothems, change in growth axis of speleothems, stalactite-stalagmite pair displaced from one another and others. These seismites can be used in paleoseismological studies of ancient earthquakes.
Neptune's Grotto is a stalactite cave near the town of Alghero on the island of Sardinia, Italy. The cave was discovered by local fishermen in the 18th century and has since developed into a popular tourist attraction. The grotto gets its name from the Roman god of the sea, Neptune.
The Castellana Caves are a karst cave system located in the municipality of Castellana Grotte, in the Metropolitan City of Bari, Apulia, southern Italy.
The Frasassi Caves are a karst cave system in the municipality of Genga, Italy, in the province of Ancona, Marche. They are among the most famous show caves in Italy.
The Pastena Caves are a karst cave system located in the municipality of Pastena, in the province of Frosinone, Lazio.
The Borgio Verezzi Caves, also named Valdemino, are a karst cave system located in the municipality of Borgio Verezzi, in the province of Savona, Liguria. They are a show cave.
Devetàshka cave is a large karst cave around 7 km (4.3 mi) east of Letnitsa and 15 km (9.3 mi) northeast of Lovech, near the village of Devetaki on the east bank of the river Osam, in Bulgaria. The site has been continuously occupied by Paleo humans for tens of thousands of years, served as a shelter for various faunal species during extensive periods and is now home to nearly 30,000 bats.
Grotte de Lombrives or Lombrives Cave is a large natural cavern located in Ornolac-Ussat-les-Bains, at the eastern edge of the Pyrénées Ariégeoises Natural Regional Park, in the Ariège department of Occitanie, in southwestern France.
Grotta Regina del Carso is a Karst cave in the village of San Michele del Carso in the municipality of Savogna d'Isonzo. The cave is not open to public, and the access is managed by Talpe del Carso/Kraški Krti speleological group, headquartered in the vicinity of the entrance.
