Page 57 - DK Children's Encyclopedia

Caves SEE ALSO

▸ ▸ Animal homes
p.23

Caves are large natural holes in the ground. They are ▸ ▸ Erosion p.93
usually formed when rock is hollowed out by running ▸ ▸ Glaciers p.122
water over millions of years. Prehistoric humans used ▸ ▸ Rocks and

caves for shelter, and some people still live in caves today. minerals p.214
They are also home to lots of animals, including bats. ▸ ▸ Homes
pp.244–245

Cave network
Caves form when rainwater dissolves A stream pours into A level area of
the soft limestone rock in the ground. the cave through an rock without soil
opening in the ground
covering is called
They often contain fantastic rock known as a sinkhole. a pavement.
features, such as stalactites
and stalagmites.

Columns form where Stalactites grow
stalactites and down from the
stalagmites join up. roofs of caves.

Stalagmites
build upward
from cave floors.

An underground river wears
away more rock, creating
chambers and tunnels.

Ice caves Biggest cave
Glaciers are rivers of ice The 40-story-high
that move very slowly. Hang Son Doong cave
Some glaciers have in Vietnam is the
caves inside them. They world's biggest cave.
are made by streams of Inside, it has a river,
water tunneling through a forest, and even its
the glacier. own clouds!
This ice cave is inside A river flows through
a glacier in Iceland. part of the huge cave.
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