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Saturday, June 23, 2007

Into Wind Cave

Well, today it was time for Jan to drag Lew Down into his first Cave-Wind Cave as it turns out. A mile-and-a-half and 300 steps down into the Earth...A wonderful experience not to be missed! This is a Labyrinthine Cave Complex with 124 linear miles of explored passages in only 1 square mile of surface area.





This is our group deep in the cave exiting a large room into a narrow winding passage.


The Cow's Tail.




This is Boxwork, the Speleothem Wind Cave exhibits in far greater abundance than exists elsewhere on the Planet.


Another display of Boxwork Calcite.




Compare this Map of the explored passages of Wind Cave (it's full extent is unknown) with the form of the Boxwork in the previous Pics...The similarity is not accidental. Jointing of the original (350MyrBP) Gypsum deposits is mimicked in the Dolomite and Limestone of the present, brought about by Calcite infilling of the original cracks (the infilling being left, by preferential weathering, as the "Boxwork" Fins of the present). This Jointing pattern is seemingly carried from the Megascopic at least down through the Macroscopic...

1 comment:

  1. Sounds like you are having an interesting trip!

    ReplyDelete

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