Speleology

1. Conservation tillage: Involves minimizing soil disturbance by reducing or eliminating plowing and cultivating, which helps to preserve soil structure and reduce erosion.
2. Cover cropping: Involves planting specific crops to cover and protect the soil surface when the main crop is not growing, which helps to reduce erosion, improve soil fertility, and enhance soil health.
3. Crop rotation: Involves alternating different crops in the same field to break pest cycles, improve soil structure, and maintain soil fertility, which can help reduce soil erosion and degradation.

"Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson raised awareness about the harmful effects of pesticides on the environment, particularly on wildlife and ecosystems. The book played a significant role in sparking the modern environmental movement and led to the banning of DDT and the establishment of environmental protection agencies.

The ground-water is a solution of calcium carbonate it has dissolved from the limestone above the cave. The mineral is subsequently precipitated as deposits of calcite in the cave: stalatcties & stalagmites, and flowstone on the floor and walls.

Not really a "force", more a process.

Chemical weathering primarily. Some mechanical weathering and erosion in active stream passages once these have been enlarged enough to carry large volumes of water.

Rainwater acidified by absorbed atmospheric carbon dioxide sinks through the joints and other discontinuities in the limestone upland's mass, dissolving the calcium carbonate that is the rock's main constituent.

BTW you don't need the adjective. Caves are always underground!

Usually, but the humidity varies considerably according to the presence or absence of water (still or streams), air temperature and pressure, and natural ventilation.

I have found very rapid relief from hay-fever when entering a cave thatswallows a stream, having walked very feverishly to it across meadows, and I ascribe this to a combination of high humidity and modest temperatureas well as lack of pollen in the cave's air.

Groundwater plays a significant role in the formation of caves through the process of dissolution, where water dissolves minerals in the rock over time, creating underground passages and caverns. Caves are often found in areas with high levels of groundwater that can carve out intricate networks of underground chambers and tunnels. So, caves are closely linked to the movement and presence of groundwater.

It is primarily a karst cave, i.e. formed by the dissolution of its host limestone by weakly-acid ground-water. If any of its passages still carry streams then those passages are called "active" and are still forming.

When limestone on the surface is dissolved by groundwater, it forms features such as caves, sinkholes, and disappearing streams, through a process known as karst topography. This occurs because limestone is a rock that can easily be dissolved by the slightly acidic nature of groundwater, creating these unique geological formations over time.

A raindrop's force is typically very small and varies depending on its size and speed. On average, a raindrop falling at terminal velocity has a force equivalent to about 0.01 Newtons.

Groundwater plays a crucial role in the formation of caves by dissolving and transporting mineral deposits through the rock layers. As groundwater flows through the rock, it can create underground cavities and passages, leading to the formation of caves over time. Caves are commonly found where groundwater has shaped the rock over thousands to millions of years.

Most caves are made out of limestone, which is a sedimentary rock composed of calcium carbonate. This rock is easily dissolved by acidic water, leading to the formation of caves through a process called chemical weathering and erosion. Other types of caves can also form in volcanic or igneous rock, such as lava tubes.

Limestone can erode relatively easily over time, especially when exposed to water and acidic conditions. Factors such as rain, wind, and chemical weathering can contribute to the erosion of limestone formations.

No, caves can vary in temperature depending on factors such as location, depth, and surrounding environment. Some caves may be cool or cold, while others can be warm or even hot. The temperature inside a cave is influenced by factors like air movement, geothermal activity, and insulation.

By Metereological Office web-site the mean annual temperature for Somerset is about 10ºC.

The caves' interior air temperatures will be close to this, maybe slightly lower, as major caves generally stabilise at the mean air temperature outside them. It's not a hard-and-fast rule but near enough for most caves.

Further research confirmed this, and revealed that the caves' steady temperature and even humidity mean cheese matures very happily in them. Cheddar Cheese, naturally. (Wookey Hole, a few miles from Cheddar, is also used for cheese-maturing.)

I have a personal interest in this, being actively involved in exploring the caves feeding the Cheddar Caves. Our particular site can be very chilly thanks to the draught that is luring us on. I don't know the actual temperature there though, and of course we are susceptible to wind-chill.

If you stood near a shake hole, you would see a depression or pit in the ground. These holes are caused by the gradual movement or collapse of underground material, such as limestone, creating a visible cavity on the surface. They can be small or large in size, depending on the extent of the subsidence.

They don't really have "weather". There is no precipitation for a start, and little seasonal variation.

The mean air temperature in most caves of any extent is fairly stable at that of the mean annual air temperature of the region in which they lie, or a little lower, but this can be affected by changes in air circulation or stream-levels.

Bats exploit this in choosing caves as roosts, nurseries or hibernaculae, the last being preferably slightly cooler, and they often migrate from one to the other.

A few UK show-caves are used also for maturing cheeses, thanks to the cool, dark, humid and stable conditions. And very nice cheese it is too!

The air in most caves does circulate, and caves can be pervaded by strong draughts. Cavers use the draught to guide them in searching for "new" caves or extensions to known ones.

Caves in temperate areas especially are very humid, and this plus the cool air can create mist that can be the bane of cave photographers.

A few caves in high Alpine areas are pervaded by ice formations coating their rock surfaces - the Eisriesenwelt in Austria being a classic example.

Caves caused by volcanic activity are made of basalt Caves caused by dissolution due to groundwater are formed in limestone or sometimes marble. Caves also form in glacial ice due to melting. (Glacial ice can technically be considered rock.)

Plants and animals naturally live and grow in their natural habitat, which is a specific environment that provides the necessary resources for their survival, such as food, water, shelter, and space. Different species have evolved to thrive in specific habitats, like forests, deserts, grasslands, or oceans. These habitats support biodiversity and ecosystems.

They can feel quite cold in wamr weather and relatively warm in Winter - but most significant caves settle on the mean annual air temperature of the location in which they lie.

It's not an entirely hard-and-fast rule because individual caves are affected by their natural ventilation and the presence or not of streams, but it's a good guide.

Correct, in limestone including its meta-form marble, and gypsum; respectively calcium carbonate and calcium sulphate. The acidity comes from absorbed atmospheric carbon-dioxide.

NB though: Limestone is a rock anyway, but only these two calcium compound rocks are soluble to any real extent. Dolomite (magnesium carbonate based) will dissolve but the physical nature of its deposits tends to prevent cave formation.

Rainwater will also attack the felspar in granite but the process, hydrolysis, is extremely slow and does not lead to dissolutional caves in granite.

A Boulder, or Talus Cave rather stretches the definition of "cave", but it's simply a void or set of voids left between fallen boulders and their source rock-face.

A cave's chamber that is heavily obstructed or even terminated by collapsed rock is often called a "boulder chamber", but it's not correct to say that collapses form caves. They don't - they modify them.

Feldspar is a constituent of igneous rocks, primarily granite, and does not form rock masses alone. Also, although it does weather, very slowly, neither it nor the igneous rocks generally have the solubility of limestone.

Caves do form in granite etc by subaeriel, sea or riverine erosion, but they are generally small, shallow rock-shelters, not conduits as in limestone caves.

A Boulder, or Talus, Cave is simply an enterable void or set of voids between boulders and the rock-face from which they have fallen.

Collapses within existing karst, sea or lava caves may choke the passage or chamber with boulders, and such chambers are often called "boulder chambers", but that does not form the cave, and it is not the same as a true boulder cave.

Dissolution of the rock's primary ingredient, calcium carbonate, by water slightly acidified by absorbed atmospheric carbon-dioxide and percolating through the rock bulk's joints and other discontinuities. Eventually the network of initial tiny conduits will start to coalesce and capture, leading to discrete passages forming.