Caves are filled with water, while others are dry passageways left behind by streams that cut to lower levels
Also called cavern, A hollow of this sort can occur in various rocks and by a variety of mechanisms. Caves produced by a chemical reaction between flowing groundwater and bedrock comprised of limestone or dolomite are the most significant. These caverns, known as solution caves, are generally found in what is known as karst topography. Karst terrain, named after the Karst area of the western Balkan Peninsula stretching from Slovenia to Montenegro, is characterized by a rough and messy landscape with exposed bedrock ledges, disordered surface drainage, sinkholes, and caves. Nevertheless, it should be highlighted that there is significant variance across karst regions. Some have spectacular surface features but few caves.
On the other hand, others may have significant cave growth with minimal surface expression; for example, the Guadalupe Mountains of New Mexico, which are home to Carlsbad Caverns and other caves, have relatively few surface karst characteristics. Karst landscapes are created by removing bedrock in solution by underground pathways rather than surface weathering and surface streams (often consisting of limestone, dolomite, gypsum, or salt, but in some cases of typically insoluble rocks such as quartzite and granite). As a result, a large portion of karst drainage is internal. Rainfall falls into closed depressions and empties them.
Further subsurface dissolution produces continuous tunnels that function as integrated drains for the fast passage of underground water. Some of these caverns are filled with water, while others are dry passageways left behind by streams that cut to lower levels. The exits for the water-carrying conduits are frequently massive springs. Caves are shards of such conduit networks, and some of them give access to flowing streams. When surface streams flow from places underlain by insoluble rock reach the border of a karst zone, they frequently sink. These sinking streams are part of the underground drainage system.
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