Friday, June 14, 2013

Popcorn and Soda Straws...


By the title one might think I was at a movie theatre; I wasn’t. However, I was underground in the dark, cold cavern of Lehman Caves (a single cavern located in the Great Basin National park) named after rancher and miner Absolom Lehman who explored it in 1885. It looked like a sci-fi flick down there when the lights were on and at any moment I expected Sigourney Weaver or some of those Alien creatures to appear.  When the lights were off, I couldn’t see my hand immediately in front of my face.  And to think people explored these things with a candle.

 
The quick unscientific explanation…hundreds of thousands of years ago, acidic water above ground mixed with water below ground, dissolved and drop by drop created this amazing display of cave formations.  Formations that included popcorn, soda straws, stalactites, stalagmites, columns, draperies, flowstone, shields and helictites…how did they go from tites and mites to popcorn and soda?

Make some popcorn, have a beer, let your mind wander and click here to see some of the amazing formations in Lehman Caves!

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