A cave or cavern is a natural underground space large enough for a human to enter. Some people suggest that the term cave should only apply to cavities that have some part that does not receive daylight; however, in popular usage, the term includes smaller spaces like sea caves, rock shelters, and grottos.
Speleology is the science of exploration and study of all aspects of caves and the environment which surrounds the caves. Exploring a cave for recreation or science may be called caving, potholing, or, in Canada and the United States, spelunking (see Caving).
The formation and development of caves is known as speleogenesis. Caves are formed by various geologic processes. These may involve a combination of chemical processes, erosion from water, tectonic forces, microorganisms, pressure, atmospheric influences, and even digging.
Solutional caves are the most frequently occurring caves and such caves form in rock that is soluble, such as limestone, but can also form in other rocks, including chalk, dolomite, marble, salt, and gypsum. Rock is dissolved by natural acid in groundwater that seeps through bedding-planes, faults, joints etc. Over geological epochs cracks expand to become caves or cave systems.
The largest and most abundant solutional caves are located in limestone. Limestone dissolves under the action of rainwater and groundwater charged with H2CO3 (carbonic acid) and naturally occurring organic acids. The dissolution process produces a distinctive landform known as karst, characterized by sinkholes, and underground drainage. Limestone caves are often adorned with calcium carbonate formations produced through slow precipitation. These include: flowstones, stalactites, stalagmites, helictites, soda straws and columns. These secondary mineral deposits in caves are called speleothems.
The world's most spectacularly decorated cave is generally regarded to be Lechuguilla Cave in New Mexico. Lechuguilla and nearby Carlsbad Cavern are now believed to be examples of another type of solutional cave. They were formed by H2S (hydrogen sulfide) gas rising from below, where reservoirs of oil give off sulfurous fumes. This gas mixes with ground water and forms H2SO4 (sulfuric acid). The acid then dissolves the limestone from below, rather than from above, by acidic water percolating from the surface.
Some caves are formed at the same time as the surrounding rock. These are sometimes called primary caves.
Lava tubes are formed through volcanic activity and are the most common 'primary' caves. The lava flows downhill and the surface cools and solidifies. The hotter lava continues to flow under that crust, and if most of the liquid lava beneath the crust flows out, a hollow tube remains, thus forming a cavity. Examples of such caves can be found on the Canary Islands, Hawaii, and many other places. Kazumura Cave near Hilo is a remarkably long and deep lava tube; it is 65.6 kilometers (40.8 mi) long.
Lava caves, include but are not limited to lava tubes. Other caves formed through volcanic activity include rift caves, lava mold caves, open vertical volcanic conduits, and inflationary caves.
Sea caves are found along coasts around the world. A special case is littoral caves, which are formed by wave action in zones of weakness in sea cliffs. Often these weaknesses are faults, but they may also be dykes or bedding-plane contacts. Some wave-cut caves are now above sea level because of later uplift. Elsewhere, in places such as Thailand's Phang Nga Bay, solutional caves have been flooded by the sea and are now subject to littoral erosion. Sea caves are generally around 5 meters (16 ft) to 50 meters (160 ft) in length but may exceed 300 meters (980 ft).
Corrasional or erosional caves are those that form entirely by erosion by flowing streams carrying rocks and other sediments. These can form in any type of rock, including hard rocks such as granite. Generally there must be some zone of weakness to guide the water, such as a fault or joint. A subtype of the erosional cave is the wind or aeolian cave, carved by wind-born sediments. Note that many caves formed initially by solutional processes often undergo a subsequent phase of erosional or vadose enlargement where active streams or rivers pass through them.
Glacier caves occur in ice and under glaciers and are formed by melting. They are also influenced by the very slow flow of the ice, which tends to close the caves again. (These are sometimes called ice caves, though this term is properly reserved for caves that contain year-round ice formations).
Fracture caves are formed when layers of more soluble minerals, such as gypsum, dissolve out from between layers of less soluble rock. These rocks fracture and collapse in blocks of stone.
Talus caves are the openings between rocks that have fallen down into a pile, often at the bases of cliffs (called "talus").
Anchihaline caves are caves, usually coastal, containing a mixture of freshwater and saline water (usually sea water). They occur in many parts of the world, and often contain highly specialized and endemic faunas.
Caves are found throughout the world, but only a portion of them have been explored and documented by cavers. The distribution of documented cave systems is widely skewed toward countries where caving has been popular for many years (such as France, Italy, Australia, the UK, the United States, etc.). As a result, explored caves are found widely in Europe, Asia, North America, and Oceania but are sparse in South America, Africa, and Antarctica. This is a great generalization, as large expanses of North America and Asia contain no documented caves, whereas areas such as the Madagascar dry deciduous forests and parts of Brazil contain many documented caves. As the world’s expanses of soluble bedrock are researched by cavers, the distribution of documented caves is likely to shift. For example, China, despite containing around half the world's exposed limestone - more than 1,000,000 square kilometers (390,000 sq mi) - has relatively few documented caves.
Cave-inhabiting animals are often categorized as troglobites (cave-limited species), troglophiles (species that can live their entire lives in caves, but also occur in other environments), trogloxenes (species that use caves, but cannot complete their life cycle wholly in caves) and accidentals (animals not in one of the previous categories). Some authors use separate terminology for aquatic forms (e.g., stygobites, stygophiles, and stygoxenes).
Of these animals, the troglobites are perhaps the most unusual organisms. Troglobitic species often show a number of characteristics, termed troglomorphies, associated with their adaptation to subterranean life. These characteristics may include a loss of pigment (often resulting in a pale or white coloration), a loss of eyes (or at least of optical functionality), an elongation of appendages, and an enhancement of other senses (such as the ability to sense vibrations in water). Aquatic troglobites (or stygobites), such as the endangered Alabama cave shrimp, live in bodies of water found in caves and get nutrients from detritus washed into their caves and from the feces of bats and other cave inhabitants. Other aquatic troglobites include cave fish, the Olm, and cave salamanders such as the Texas Blind Salamander.
Cave insects such as Oligaphorura (formerly Archaphorura) schoetti are troglophiles, reaching 1.7 millimeters (0.067 in) in length. They have extensive distribution and have been studied fairly widely. Most specimens are female but a male specimen was collected from St Cuthberts Swallet in 1969.
Bats, such as the Gray bat and Mexican Free-tailed Bat, are trogloxenes and are often found in caves; they forage outside of the caves. Some species of cave crickets are classified as trogloxenes, because they roost in caves by day and forage above ground at night.
Because of the fragile nature of the cave ecosystem, and the fact that cave regions tend to be isolated from one another, caves harbor a number of endangered species, such as the Tooth cave spider, Liphistiidae Liphistius trapdoor spider, and the Gray bat.
Caves are visited by many surface-living animals, including humans. These are usually relatively short-lived incursions, due to the lack of light and sustenance.
Throughout history, primitive peoples have made use of caves for shelter, burial, or as religious sites. Since items placed in caves are protected from the climate and scavenging animals, this means caves are an archaeological treasure house for learning about these people. Cave paintings are of particular interest. One example is the Great Cave of Niah, in Malaysia, which contains evidence of human habitation dating back 40,000 years.
In the animal kingdom, caves offer shelter, including uses such as maternity dens.
Caves are also important for geological research because they can reveal details of past climatic conditions in speleothems and sedimentary rock layers.
Caves are frequently used today as sites for recreation. Caving, for example, is the popular sport of cave exploration. For the less adventurous, a number of the world's prettier and more accessible caves have been converted into show caves, where artificial lighting, floors, and other aids allow the casual visitor to experience the cave with minimal inconvenience. Caves have also been used for BASE jumping and cave diving. Caverns of Magic by Hal G. P. Colebatch surveys some of the instances of cave stories in literature and mythology.
Caves are also used for the preservation or aging of wine and cheese. The constant, slightly chilly temperature and high humidity that most caves possess makes them ideal for such uses.
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Ronald D. Cave
|Founded||June 15, 1994|
|Located||Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan|
CAVE CO., LTD. (Computer Art Visual Entertainment) is a Japanese video game company, known primarily for its manic shoot 'em ups. CAVE remains one of the most active makers of arcade shoot-'em-ups in the Japanese market. The company was formed primarily from the remains of Toaplan, and several of their early games are considered to be spiritual successors to prior Toaplan works, in particular Truxton and Batsugun. CAVE currently produces new titles for the arcade and cell phones, as well as online games for PC.
They are also known for an Engrish warning screen after turning on the games DonPachi and Puzzle Uo Poko ("Violator and subject to severe penalties and will be prosecutedt to the full extent of the jam").
CAVE's arcade titles have used various arcade boards over the years. Earlier titles used a CAVE-designed board based on a Motorola 68000 CPU, whereas later releases moved over to the PGM (Poly Game Master) hardware, and then on to boards based on the Hitachi SH-3 CPU. CAVE is currently transitioning to PC-based hardware.
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There are numerous natural caves among the limestone rocks of Syria, many of which have been artificially enlarged for various purposes.
The next we read of is the cave of Machpelah (q.v.), which Abraham purchased from the sons of Heth (Gen 25:9, 10). It was the burying-place of Sarah and of Abraham himself, also of Isaac, Rebekah, Leah, and Jacob (Gen 49:31; 50:13).
The cave of Engedi (q.v.), now called 'Ain Jidy, i.e., the "Fountain of the Kid", where David cut off the skirt of Saul's robe (24:4). Here he also found a shelter for himself and his followers to the number of 600 (23:29; 24:1). "On all sides the country is full of caverns which might serve as lurking-places for David and his men, as they do for outlaws at the present day."
Caves were frequently used as dwelling-places (Num 24:21; Song 2:14; Jer 49:16; Obad 1:3). "The excavations at Deir Dubban, on the south side of the wady leading to Santa Hanneh, are probably the dwellings of the Horites," the ancient inhabitants of Idumea Proper. The pits or cavities in rocks were also sometimes used as prisons (Isa 24:22; 51:14; Zech 9:11). Those which had niches in their sides were occupied as burying-places (Ezek 32:23; Jn 11:38).
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[[File:|thumb|A person in a cave]]
A cave is a natural underground hollow space that is completely dark. The entrance area of caves are home to many creatures such as snakes, mice, spiders & porcupines. Only a few animals are found deep in caves. Bats often live in caves. Another common creature found in caves are cave crickets. Caves consist of narrow passageways (corridors) and chambers (caverns).
Caves are usually formed when underground acidic (sour) water corrodes (that is: eats up) away softer stones, such as limestone, leaving only the hard rock, such as granite, left. They can also be formed during natural catastrophes, such as earthquakes or by ice and glaciers.
People in the past are known to have lived in caves and even today caves can provide shelter for trekkers. Many European caves have been inhabitated (that is: people have lived in) already in the Stone Age, and some caves have beautiful paintings on the walls.
Caves can have beautiful formations in them such as stalagmites and stalactites. These are made over thousands of years by water dripping on them and leaving mineral deposits.
People who explore caves are called cavers. They go into caves for fun, exercise and to see the different formations. This can be a dangerous sport because caves sometimes have deep pits. Cavers also have to climb and crawl through the passages.
Cavers usually go into caves with four or more people. Each person has 2 or 3 light sources. One light is attached to each helmet. People go into caves to try and explore more about the world.
The study of caves is called Speleology.bjn:Guha