Word: caving
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...process, the Palmers and their colleagues are transforming speleology -- the study of caves -- from an oddball hobby into an extraordinarily fruitful field of scientific investigation. Old views of caves as static places untouched by time or weather have been shoved aside. Replacing them is a growing understanding of the complicated ways in which caves interact with the land above and around them. "Wondering where a cave goes, what is down there and how it formed is really the essence of science," says Art Palmer, who is a professor of hydrology at the State University of New York at Oneonta...
...Caves can be pounded into existence by ocean waves, plowed open by ice or formed by lava. But to speleologists, the most interesting are those that have been etched out of limestone by acidic water flowing underground. For a long time, researchers believed that nature could accomplish this feat in only one way: through the action of carbonic acid, which is produced when water reacts with carbon dioxide. The weak acid slowly dissolves bedrock. An underground stream forms, and an elaborate network of chambers like those found at Mammoth Cave in Kentucky takes shape. The unusual limestone terrains where this...
...newly carved cave fills with air, drops of water seep in through the walls and ceiling. Minerals trapped in these trickles begin to precipitate out of solution, hardening into a stunning array of underground ornaments. Stalactites drip down from the ceiling. Stalagmites creep up from the floor. Miniature forests made of twisted branches of calcium carbonate stretch out from the walls. Many of the formations are so delicate that they can easily be destroyed by the presence of humans...
However, this scenario never really fit one celebrated site -- Carlsbad Cavern. "At Mammoth Cave, you can follow the path of the water from beginning to end -- just like some kind of elaborate plumbing system," says Carol Hill, who works with the University of New Mexico and is a legendary figure in cave science. "But you can't do that for Carlsbad. The cave keeps stopping where it shouldn...
...fossil remains of primitive bacteria that had thrived in the once hostile environment. Using sulfur instead of sunlight as their source of energy, these organisms actually bolstered the acid's power to etch rock. Descendants of these strange microbes have recently been found and are being studied at Lechuguilla Cave, not far from Carlsbad...