File:Travertine dripstone-flowstone (fissure in Tanglewood Limestone Member, Lexington Limestone, Middle Ordovician; Mercer Stone Company Quarry, east of Harrodsburg, Mercer County, central Kentucky, USA) 1 (15702344091).jpg

From Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Original file(2,792 × 2,200 pixels, file size: 997 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg)

Captions

Captions

Add a one-line explanation of what this file represents

Summary

[edit]
Description

Travertine dripstone-flowstone from the late Cenozoic of Kentucky, USA (9.6 cm across at its widest)

The general term for all secondary mineral deposits occurring in caves is speleothem. Between 200 and 300 different minerals have been reported to occur in various speleothems around the world. The most common speleothem minerals are calcite (CaCO3), aragonite (CaCO3), and gypsum (CaSO4·2H2O). Calcitic speleothem is given the rock name travertine.

Varieties of cave travertine are named based on morphology and origin. The most common type is dripstone, formed by dripping water. Examples include stalactites, stalagmites, and columns. Other varieties include flowstone, knobstone (a.k.a. coralloids), helictites, shelfstone, rimstone, cave pearls, frostwork, etc.

This cave travertine sample is dominated by dripstone, especially in the lower portions (note the stalactite), although portions of the specimen have characteristics of flowstone (in general, there is a gradation - a continuum - between dripstone and flowstone).

Age & geologic context: late Cenozoic; speleothem-lined fissure in the Tanglewood Limestone Member, Lexington Limestone, Middle Ordovician

Locality: Mercer Stone Company Quarry, ~0.5 miles east of the town of Harrodsburg, southeast-central Mercer County, central Kentucky, USA
Date
Source Travertine dripstone-flowstone (fissure in Tanglewood Limestone Member, Lexington Limestone, Middle Ordovician; Mercer Stone Company Quarry, east of Harrodsburg, Mercer County, central Kentucky, USA) 1
Author James St. John

Licensing

[edit]
w:en:Creative Commons
attribution
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
You are free:
  • to share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work
  • to remix – to adapt the work
Under the following conditions:
  • attribution – You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
This image was originally posted to Flickr by James St. John at https://flickr.com/photos/47445767@N05/15702344091 (archive). It was reviewed on 6 December 2019 by FlickreviewR 2 and was confirmed to be licensed under the terms of the cc-by-2.0.

6 December 2019

File history

Click on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time.

Date/TimeThumbnailDimensionsUserComment
current03:19, 6 December 2019Thumbnail for version as of 03:19, 6 December 20192,792 × 2,200 (997 KB)Ser Amantio di Nicolao (talk | contribs)Transferred from Flickr via #flickr2commons

There are no pages that use this file.

Metadata