Why do caves have stalactites?
Show answer & explanation
Answer: Dripping water deposits minerals
Dripping water deposits minerals ✓ — Correct! Water seeping through limestone dissolves calcium carbonate. When it drips from cave ceilings, CO2 escapes and minerals precipitate, building stalactites downward (they 'hold tight' to ceiling) over thousands of years. Stalagmites grow upward from floor where drops land. Some eventually meet forming columns!
Underground rivers carve them — Wrong. Rivers erode caves but don't form stalactites. Stalactites grow from mineral-rich water dripping from the ceiling, depositing calcium carbonate over thousands of years.
Rocks growing downward slowly — Wrong. Rocks don't grow. Stalactites form through mineral deposition from dripping water—a chemical process, not biological growth.
More Earth Science questions
- A large igneous province is a vast lava-and-magma episode. Why can it hurt far oceans?
- CO2 and SO2 can both leave big eruptions. Why do their climate effects split?
- Sills are buried magma sheets. Why can Siberian sills pose more risk than lava?
- A large igneous province is a continent-scale volcanic outburst. Why abrupt extinctions?
- Hawaiian volcanoes get older northwest of the Big Island. What records that?
- A plume head is a broad hot-mantle blob. Why can it make a huge basalt province?