Post by L Roebuck on Jan 8, 2007 9:08:26 GMT -5
Fast cave formation? Nature picks snottites
One way nature makes a cave is by hollowing out limestone rock with sulfuric acid.
It seems this process works especially well in caves that look as if they have a bad cold, according to a research team led by Pennsylvania State University scientists.
The group studied this gooey phenomenon in central Italy, home to one of the world's largest actively growing cave complexes. The Frasassi caves are simply dripping with biofilms, some of them with the unappetizing name of "snottites."
"I wish I had made that up," says Jennifer Macalady, a Penn State assistant professor of geosciences. "It is very appropriate."
Though she didn't coin the term, Macalady and colleagues have learned more about how snottites accelerate the process of cave formation, they reported last month at the American Geophysical Union conference in San Francisco.
Full Article
One way nature makes a cave is by hollowing out limestone rock with sulfuric acid.
It seems this process works especially well in caves that look as if they have a bad cold, according to a research team led by Pennsylvania State University scientists.
The group studied this gooey phenomenon in central Italy, home to one of the world's largest actively growing cave complexes. The Frasassi caves are simply dripping with biofilms, some of them with the unappetizing name of "snottites."
"I wish I had made that up," says Jennifer Macalady, a Penn State assistant professor of geosciences. "It is very appropriate."
Though she didn't coin the term, Macalady and colleagues have learned more about how snottites accelerate the process of cave formation, they reported last month at the American Geophysical Union conference in San Francisco.
Full Article
