Draft:Cave Shields

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Instructions · What links here · Cave Shields (talk: + · bio) · (log) · Copyvios report · reFill · Citation Bot · (Search: Google, Wikipedia) · Submitted 20 days ago by Clayman8392 (talk: D · +) · Last edited 19 days ago by Clayman8392

Cave shields are an interesting formation that can grow at any angle in a cave and often have other formations growing on them. A cave shield will grow as two plates with a medial crack between them. This crack is almost never visible and is what allows the formation to grow through capillary action, drawing water to the edge of the plates and depositing calcite at the edge. Cave shields can grow at odd angles becaus they grow from the joints in the rocks that allow the water into the cave.^[1]^[2]

Because cave shields almost always have water and grow at varying angles, stalactites and flowstones will often grow from the bottom plate, creating perasute-looking structures. The weight of the hanging formations will sometimes break the lower plate of a cave shield, revealing the inside of it.^[3]

When this breakage occurs and the inside of the shield is rendered visible, you can see growth rings of calcite, aragonite, and travertine.

Welts

Welts occur from fractures in bedrock, flowstones, or cave columns and grow as the fractures form in a similar enough manner to be classified as a subcategory of shields.

This article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

References

^ NSS. (2023a, June 7). Shields. National Speleological Society. https://caves.org/virtualcave/shields/
^ U.S. Department of the Interior. (n.d.-a). Cave shields. National Parks Service. https://www.nps.gov/grba/learn/nature/cave-shields.htm
^ Hill, C A, and Forti, P, (1997). Cave Minerals of the World, (2nd edition). [Huntsville, Alabama: National Speleological Society Inc.] pp. 217, 225

[1] NSS. (2023a, June 7). Shields. National Speleological Society. https://caves.org/virtualcave/shields/

[2] U.S. Department of the Interior. (n.d.-a). Cave shields. National Parks Service. https://www.nps.gov/grba/learn/nature/cave-shields.htm

[3] Hill, C A, and Forti, P, (1997). Cave Minerals of the World, (2nd edition). [Huntsville, Alabama: National Speleological Society Inc.] pp. 217, 225

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