This article is about natural caves; for artificial caves used as dwellings, such as those in north China, see yaodong. A cave is a natural underground void large enough for an adult human to enter. Some scientists stipulate that it must be large enough that some portion of it will not receive daylight; however, in popular usage, the term includes smaller spaces like cliff cavities, rock shelters and sea caves. Speleology is the scientific exploration and study of all aspects of caves. The act of exploring ...

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• Cave - Types and formation
• Cave - Primary caves
• Cave - Secondary caves
• Cave - Distribution
• Cave - Inhabitants
• Cave - Records
• Cave - Archaeological and social importance

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Cave inhabiting animals can be categorized as troglobites (cave limited-species), troglophiles (species which can live their entire lives in caves, but also occur in other environments), trogloxenes (species which utilize caves, but must leave the caves to complete their life cycle) and accidentals. Some authors use separate terminology for aquatic forms (i.e., stygobites, stygophiles, stygoxenes). Of these animals, the troglobites are among the most extraordinary of organisms. Troglobitic species often show a suite of characters, ter ...

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Cave, Cave - Types and formation, Cave - Primary caves, Cave - Secondary caves, Cave - Distribution, Cave - Inhabitants, Cave - Records, Cave - Archaeological and social importance

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Caves are formed by geologic processes. These may involve a combination of chemical processes, tectonic forces and atmospheric influences. Cave - Primary caves. Some caves are formed at the same time as the surrounding rock. These are called primary caves. Lava tubes are formed through volcanic activity. They are the most common primary caves. Lava flows downhill and the surface cools and solidifies. The lava now flows under this crust, until the eruption ends. If the liquid lava inside the cr ...

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Cave, Cave - Types and formation, Cave - Primary caves, Cave - Secondary caves, Cave - Distribution, Cave - Inhabitants, Cave - Records, Cave - Archaeological and social importance

Read more here: » Cave: Encyclopedia II - Cave - Types and formation

Throughout history, primitive peoples have made use of caves for shelter, burial, or as religious sites. Since items placed in caves are protected from the climate and scavanging animals, this means caves are an archaeological treasure house for learning about these people. Cave paintings are of particular interest. One example is the Great Cave of Niah, which contains evidence of human habitation dating back 40,000 years. Caves are also important for geological research because they can reveal details of ...

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Cave, Cave - Types and formation, Cave - Primary caves, Cave - Secondary caves, Cave - Distribution, Cave - Inhabitants, Cave - Records, Cave - Archaeological and social importance

Read more here: » Cave: Encyclopedia II - Cave - Archaeological and social importance

Since new caves are continually being explored, the various records of cave dimensions need to be updated fairly frequently. The system with the greatest (by some distance) total length of passage is Mammoth Cave (Kentucky, USA) at 579km in length. This record is unlikely to be surpassed in the near future as the next most extensive known cave is the Optymistychna system in Ukraine, at 214km. As of 2005, the deepest known cave (measured from its highest entrance to its lowest point) is Voronya Cave (Abkhazia, Georgia), with a d ...

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Cave, Cave - Types and formation, Cave - Primary caves, Cave - Secondary caves, Cave - Distribution, Cave - Inhabitants, Cave - Records, Cave - Archaeological and social importance

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Caves are sparse in South America, Africa, and Antarctica, but are found widely in Europe, Asia, and North America. The distribution of cave systems so far discovered is widely skewed toward countries where caving is popular (such as the United States, France, Italy, the UK etc.). It is likely that many more systems remain to be discovered, especially in China, which, despite containing around half the world's exposed limestone - more than 1,000,000 km2 - ...

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Cave, Cave - Types and formation, Cave - Primary caves, Cave - Secondary caves, Cave - Distribution, Cave - Inhabitants, Cave - Records, Cave - Archaeological and social importance

Read more here: » Cave: Encyclopedia II - Cave - Distribution