Caves Part I A cave is a tunnel

Caves Part I

A cave is a tunnel or room way underground, made by nature, not by people. From the outside, maybe it just looks like this.

or this.

What if you go in? What will you see? Maybe this.

But if you go deeper into the cave, maybe you will see this!

Or maybe this.

What is further down in the cave? What will you see there? You could see a pointy stone hanging from the ceiling.

That’s called a stalactite.

And what else do you see? What is this big stone, growing up on the floor?

It’s called a stalagmite. It might even be white!

Sometimes, the stalactites and stalagmites come together. They make columns.

And sometimes, the stone flows out like melting wax. That’s called flowstone.

Maybe you will find a big underground room, with lots of stalactites, stalagmites, columns, and flowstone!

There are even pools in caves.

Here is someone swimming in a cave pool!

Some underground pools are so big, they are like lakes!

Sometimes, scuba divers dive down into the underground lakes and caves.

You know what else you might see in a cave? A bat!

Bats like to hang upside down from the cave ceiling!

But a bat might fly off to catch some food.

At dusk, bats leave the cave all together in a big group.

Look at all the bats,

They flock together like birds, but they aren’t birds. They are rodents, like mice with wings!

You might even see pictures left on the wall by people from a long, long time ago. You can see cave paintings at Lascaux Cave, in France.

Let’s open up a cave, and look inside.

Caves are made when water flows through rock called limestone. Here’s a little block of limestone.

And look at this cave formation video.

Some people like caves so much, they visit them and walk through them on paths.

The End