File:Snow Drift (travertine flowstone) (Endless Caverns, Virginia, USA) 1 (30456826773).jpg

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Travertine flowstone in a Virginia cave, USA.

"Cave formations" in caves are technically called speleothem. Most speleothem is composed of travertine, a crystalline-textured chemical sedimentary rock composed of calcite (CaCO3). Travertine forms in most caves and at some springs by precipitation of crystals from water. Pure travertine is white. The colors seen in the travertine shown above are mostly from iron oxides. Travertine speleothem occurs in a wide variety of forms. The most common variety is dripstone, which forms by the action of dripping water - examples include stalactites, stalagmites, columns, and draperies. The second most common variety is flowstone, which forms from flowing films of water. Flowstone has the appearance of a frozen waterfalls.

This photo shows a large, pristine flowstone mass nicknamed the "Snow Drift" in Endless Caverns in Virginia. The publicly accessible portions of the cave are developed in structurally tilted carbonates of the New Market Limestone (Middle Ordovician). Other portions of Endless Caverns are in overlying units: the Lincolnshire Limestone and the Edinburgh Formation.

Locality: Endless Caverns, south of the town of New Market, eastern Rockingham County, northern Virginia, USA
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Source Snow Drift (travertine flowstone) (Endless Caverns, Virginia, USA) 1
Author James St. John

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This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
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This image was originally posted to Flickr by James St. John at https://flickr.com/photos/47445767@N05/30456826773. It was reviewed on 12 October 2019 by FlickreviewR 2 and was confirmed to be licensed under the terms of the cc-by-2.0.

12 October 2019

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current13:32, 12 October 2019Thumbnail for version as of 13:32, 12 October 20194,000 × 3,000 (6.65 MB)Ser Amantio di Nicolao (talk | contribs)Transferred from Flickr via #flickr2commons

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