Caves

Carlsbad Caverns National Park New Mexico national park service
This wallpaper shows Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico. The park contains 113 of caves, which formed when sulfuric acid dissolved the surrounding limestone, creating some of the largest caves in North America. (Image credit: National Park Service)

A cave is "a natural opening in the ground extending beyond the zone of light and large enough to permit the entry of man," according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Caves can range in size from single rooms to large formations with winding passageways that extend for miles. Caves typically form in types of rock, such as limestone, that dissolve in water. It can take tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of years for caves to form. The study of caves is called speleology, and the exploration of caves is called spelunking. Caves are famous of their dripstone features called speleothems, the most well-known of which are stalactites and stalagmites. Many of the strange creatures found in caves have adapted to live in near or total darkness — some are blind to visible light. See cave pictures and read about the latest cave discoveries and speleological research below.

Latest about caves

A photograph of one of the moray eel specimens whose left eye is overgrown with skin.

Why are cave-dwelling eels growing skin over their left eyes? It may be evolution in action.

By Sascha Pare published

These "greedy" eels likely retreated into the gloomy depths of underwater caves in search of tasty crustaceans and are adapting to the darkness by going blind, one eye at a time.

A 21,500-year-old cave painting depicting an extinct cattle species known as an aurochs in the Lascaux caves, in France. Notice the four dots (in the digital yellow circle) which may have had a special meaning for ice age peoples.

20,000-year-old cave painting 'dots' are the earliest written language, study claims. But not everyone agrees.

By Kristina Killgrove published

Stone Age dots, lines and Y-shaped marks might represent a type of proto-writing created by hunter-gatherers who lived in Europe at least 20,000 years ago.

Pottery found in the cave is shown in this photo. The pottery would have been buried along with the deceased.

3,300-year-old cave 'frozen in time' from reign of Ramesses II uncovered in Israel

By Owen Jarus published

Construction workers in Israel unexpectedly broke into a 3,300-year-old cave that looks like an "Indiana Jones film set."

Denisova Cave

Neanderthals and Denisovans Lived (and Mated) in This Siberian Cave

By Laura Geggel last updated

The Neanderthals and Denisovans — both relatives of modern humans — were roommates, literally, for thousands of years in a remote Siberian cave, two new studies find.

A caver exploring Australia's deepest cave.

Hidden passage leads explorers to deepest cave Down Under

By Patrick Pester published

Cavers have successfully navigated Australia's deepest cave and named it the "Delta Variant" after COVID-19.

Jamie Lund, an archaeologist, and Ed Coghlan, a caving club leader, explore mines beneath Alderley Edge. They are both wearing a hardhat with a light and a safety harness and are looking up.

Cave explorers discover a 19th-century mining scene preserved like a time capsule

By JoAnna Wendel published

While exploring an old mine in northwestern England, a group of cavers stumbled upon 200-year-old personal items and equipment left by 19th-century cobalt miners.

This giant karst sinkhole, also called a tiankeng, has plants growing at the bottom in Luoquanyan Village of Xuan'en County, central China's Hubei Province. This is not the sinkhole discovered in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

Giant sinkhole with a forest inside found in China

By Stephanie Pappas published

A team of Chinese scientists has discovered a giant new sinkhole with a forest at its bottom.

American photojournalist and founder of the Ancient Art Archive Stephen Alvarez in the 19th newly identified but unnamed cave in Alabama.

Largest known cave art images in US by Indigenous Americans discovered in Alabama

By Callum McKelvie published

Using a 3D scanning process known as photogrammetry, archeologists have uncovered five previously unknown giant cave paintings.

stalagmites and stalactites

How are stalactites and stalagmites formed?

By Laura Mears published

Reference These ancient cave decorations take thousands of years to appear, building up drip by painstaking drip

Reference
A digital reconstruction of the Arma Veirana cave.

Burial of infant 'Neve' could be oldest of its kind in Europe

By Tom Garlinghouse published

An infant burial discovered in the Italian Alps sheds light on how the hunter-gatherers of Europe dealt with issues of personhood and status 10,000 years ago.

123456789Archives