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| The holes in the ceiling are called solution domes. These are
rare formations because of the unique circumstances that are required.
First the stone of the cave must be dissolved to form a cave or hollow
chamber. The cave would then fill with water and the water would be
forced up into the cracks.
When the water starts to seep up the fissures and dissolve the rock the
fisure will enlarge where the water is traveling, causing a circular or
oval hole in the rock layer. |
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The curtain at left is below
what used to be a stalactite. The top of it has been broken off, not by
humans because it was like this when Joe Petty first discovered it. One
popular explaination is that the large concentration of iron in the
calcite that expanded when wet and shrinks when dry caused the top to
crack and fall away. The photo a the right shows stalactites that are
mostly growing straight down but one is growing at an angle. Notice the
more red color, indicating increased amounts of iron. This
expansion and contraction could be responsible for the tilt of this
stalactite. |
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| Formations above of stalactites (cone shaped stone formed by
water
running down the formation), stalagmites ( cone shaped stone formed at
the floor from water dripping down from above), columns (where
stalactites and stalagmites 'grow' together), draperies sometimes
called ribbons (above left where water flows down at a steep angle
forming what looks like the edge of a drape for a window) and flowstone
(formed when water flows slowly over a rather flat area) take hundreds
or even thousands of years to form as they have here in the cave. Many of the passages are too small for people to fit through. There is a great possibility that additional large cave areas lye beyond these small passages. |
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