Hullo-geology Student.

You wouldn’t think that flamingoes are extremophiles just from looking at them. It’s like somebody tried to build the vertebrate equivalent of that fungus that lives inside nuclear reactors, and ended up with a gangly pink dinosaur with a spoon for a face.

Yeah, I think they're gneiss.

I like rocks, anyone else like em' too?

Its that time of night again when my body gets really cold to tell me to go to bed and instead i put on a hoodie and continue to research magma

Trying to reorganize my rock collection on my shelf by how much I want the specific rocks to be displayed. The problem is that I'm a geology major and I love all of them

Ohhh my gosh, thank you for your post about geologic events and tips on writing them! If you don't mind, can I ask you about cave systems? Some of the more commons types (mineral types and formations) vs some of the more spectacular/rare finds and the conditions for their formation?

Hello and thanks! Caves typically are formed out of limestone (a sedimentary rock). Limestone is a rock mostly made of calcite/ calcium carbonate that is formed in the ocean. Once the ocean level lowers or the land rises due to mountain building events, these rocks get exposed to the surface where rain (which is usually always a little bit acidic) will begin to react with the stone (Similar to your teeth and soda). Once this process begins it will make the caves we know and love.

There are a couple interesting things that can happen though! First, dissolving rocks means that the water is full of minerals, that means that while that water drips from the caves it will precipitate out those minerals creating stalactites and stalagmites on the ceilings and floors. This also means that they will be made out mostly pure calcite!

Another interesting thing is that because they were on the ocean floor, it means that there will be a lot of fossils present from an ancient ocean.

So, most times, the only things you will find in caves is calcite and fossils. However in some rare instances you can have salt caves, which are also sedimentary but would be associated with the drying of oceans (You would also be able to probably find gypsum in those caves as well).

Other rare and interesting caves could be formed from hydrothermal water (hot water generated from volcanic activities), this opens up a world of different things that *could* be present including metals being deposited in the stone (gold, silver, or copper). That said, this is just me inventing excuses for if you want it to be mineable.

Some natural disasters associated with cave systems being under the land would definitely be sinkholes! There can also be entire rivers that just disappear underground.

I truly hope this helps! If someone who knows more about caves sees this, please feel free to add comments!