Wind Cave South Dakota
Wind Cave National Park
Bright skies and pitch black darkness. The sunlight streaming across the panoramic views above, blocked from entering the cave. A national park where the American Buffalo, Elk and Prairie Dog calls home and roam the forests and grasslands. But underneath this lies 143 miles of cave passages in the Madison Limestone*. On top you can see the reflections of the sky on a stream where a portion of it disappears into the ground lost in the maze that is the Wind Cave National Park. The difference in the landscape above and the cave below is punctuated by the changing barometric pressure causing the cave to breathe inhaling and exhaling the difference in an attempt to find equilibrium.
Enter the cave you find cracks filled with calcite and then the surrounding materials eroded away to form unique Boxworks structures. Crisscrossed ridges that look like miniature trusses supporting the roof. small node of calcite, aragonite or gypsum that forms on surfaces in caves. Cave popcorn, Coralloid formations form from the calcite deposited when the cave was filled with calcium saturated lakes. Large rooms lie hidden underground waiting to be found as you navigate the passages of crystal covered walls.
*Enright, Tracy J. "SOFIA - Paper - Geology and Hydrogeology of the Florida Keys - Pleistocene Geology." SOFIA - Paper - Geology and Hydrogeology of the Florida Keys - Pleistocene Geology. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Mar. 2017. https://www.nps.gov/wica/learn/nature/wind-cave-natural-history.htm
Read MoreBright skies and pitch black darkness. The sunlight streaming across the panoramic views above, blocked from entering the cave. A national park where the American Buffalo, Elk and Prairie Dog calls home and roam the forests and grasslands. But underneath this lies 143 miles of cave passages in the Madison Limestone*. On top you can see the reflections of the sky on a stream where a portion of it disappears into the ground lost in the maze that is the Wind Cave National Park. The difference in the landscape above and the cave below is punctuated by the changing barometric pressure causing the cave to breathe inhaling and exhaling the difference in an attempt to find equilibrium.
Enter the cave you find cracks filled with calcite and then the surrounding materials eroded away to form unique Boxworks structures. Crisscrossed ridges that look like miniature trusses supporting the roof. small node of calcite, aragonite or gypsum that forms on surfaces in caves. Cave popcorn, Coralloid formations form from the calcite deposited when the cave was filled with calcium saturated lakes. Large rooms lie hidden underground waiting to be found as you navigate the passages of crystal covered walls.
*Enright, Tracy J. "SOFIA - Paper - Geology and Hydrogeology of the Florida Keys - Pleistocene Geology." SOFIA - Paper - Geology and Hydrogeology of the Florida Keys - Pleistocene Geology. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Mar. 2017. https://www.nps.gov/wica/learn/nature/wind-cave-natural-history.htm
