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Straws (stalactite precursors) in Gardner's Gut. Soda straw. A soda straw (or simply straw) is a speleothem in the form of a hollow mineral cylindrical tube. They are also known as tubular stalactites. Soda straws grow in places where water leaches slowly through cracks in rock, such as on the roofs of caves.
A common stalactite found seasonally or year round in many caves is the ice stalactite, commonly referred to as icicles, especially on the surface. [12] Water seepage from the surface will penetrate into a cave and if temperatures are below freezing, the water will form stalactites. They can also be formed by the freezing of water vapor. [13]
Image showing the six most common speleothems The "Witch’s Finger" in the Carlsbad Caverns, New Mexico. A stalagmite (UK: / ˈ s t æ l ə ɡ ˌ m aɪ t /, US: / s t ə ˈ l æ ɡ m aɪ t /; from Greek σταλαγμίτης (stalagmítēs); from Ancient Greek σταλαγμίας (stalagmías) 'dropping, trickling' and -ίτης (-ítēs) 'one connected to, a member of') [1] is a type of ...
A brinicle (brine icicle, also known as an ice stalactite) is a downward-growing hollow tube of ice enclosing a plume of descending brine that is formed beneath developing sea ice. As seawater freezes in the polar ocean, salt brine concentrates are expelled from the sea ice, creating a downward flow of dense, extremely cold, saline water , with ...
Calthemite stalactites can form on concrete structures and "artificial caves" lined with concrete (e.g. mines and tunnels) significantly faster than those in limestone, marble or dolomite caves. [3] [8] This is because the majority of calthemites are created by chemical reactions which are different from normal "speleothem" chemistry.
The remainder of the structure is a complex community of symbiotic or mutualistic microbes including bacteria Halomonas titanicae and fungi that use the rusting metal as a source of food, causing microbial corrosion and collectively producing the mineral compounds that form the rusticle as waste products.
Calcite crystals form on the surface of quiescent bodies of water, even when the bulk water is not supersaturated with respect to calcium carbonate. The crystals grow, attach to one other and appear to be floating rafts of a white, opaque material. The floating materials have been referred to as calcite rafts or "leopard spots".
A heterotroph (/ ˈ h ɛ t ər ə ˌ t r oʊ f,-ˌ t r ɒ f /; [1] [2] from Ancient Greek ἕτερος (héteros) 'other' and τροφή (trophḗ) 'nutrition') is an organism that cannot produce its own food, instead taking nutrition from other sources of organic carbon, mainly plant or animal matter. In the food chain, heterotrophs are ...