Spotlit stalactites stand out starkly against the lumpy cavern floor in this section of the famous Carlsbad Caverns. Each point represents the current terminus of a dripline of mineral-rich water, where evaporation causes each drop to deposit a some calcium carbonate and staining iron minerals that had been dissolved from the limestone layers above. Even though southeastern New Mexico doesn’t get much rain, enough has fallen over many thousands of years to percolate through the rock above and deposit these formations, grain by grain in drop by drop. I do not recommend standing beneath these and jumping vertically. That would be both painful and illegal, as it would damage both one’s skull and the mineral formations.
4 W Whites City NM (9 Jun 14) UndergroundCarlsbad: Spikes Down
Spotlit stalactites stand out starkly against the lumpy cavern floor in this section of the famous Carlsbad Caverns. Each point represents the current terminus of a dripline of mineral-rich water, where evaporation causes each drop to deposit a some calcium carbonate and staining iron minerals that had been dissolved from the limestone layers above. Even though southeastern New Mexico doesn’t get much rain, enough has fallen over many thousands of years to percolate through the rock above and deposit these formations, grain by grain in drop by drop. I do not recommend standing beneath these and jumping vertically. That would be both painful and illegal, as it would damage both one’s skull and the mineral formations.
4 W Whites City NM (9 Jun 14) Underground