io8 VERNON C. ALLISON 



FACTORS AFFECTING STALACTITIC DEPOSITION AFTER THE 

 LIME SOLUTION HAS REACHED THE CAVE 



1. Drip. Size of feeders.^ 



2. Rate of evaporation within the cave.^ Air circulation, 

 temperature, and humidity. 



3. Diverting bodies under the drip.^ Important only if rela- 

 tively large in comparison with lime deposition. 



4. Shifting of drip.'' Complicates calculation of resultant mass. 

 Not important. 



5. Surface tension. Affects pendant drop. 



6. Capillarity. One phase of surface tension which tends to 

 hold solution in stalactitic tube. 



7. Gravity, 



The term "evaporation" includes the precipitation of the lime 

 as basic carbonate by the removal of the carbonic acid from the 

 solution, as well as the removal of the water. 



A dripping stalactite means more solution than the evaporation 

 conditions will handle. A small drip and rapid evaporation may 

 mean no stalagmite and a rapid-growing stalactite. A rapid drip 

 and poor evaporation may mean no stalactite but a slow-growing 

 stalagmite^ with large diameter. Small drip and poor evaporation 

 gives slower growth and smaller diameter to the stalagmite. 



STALACTITES 

 GROWTH or STALACTITES 



A stalactite forms as a slender tube,^ which increases in diameter 

 until the drip and evaporation reach equihbrium. The increase in 

 diameter is effected partly by the creeping of the lime solution 

 up over the rim of the stalactite and partly by the lime solution 

 percolating from the inside of the tube outward through small 



'^ Charles Peabody and W. K. Moorehead, loc. cU. 

 ' George Byron Gordon, loc. cit. 



3 Charles Peabody and W. K. Moorehead, loc. cit. 



4 Ibid. 



^ Ibid., p. 257. 



^ Chamberlain and Salisbury, Geology, Vol. I, Processes (2d ed. revised, 1909), 

 p. 229. 



