Caves Trivia Quiz

Answer: Speleology

Or spelaeology if you prefer diphthongs. From the Latin (who got it from the Greek) for cave.

Answer: Karst

Karst is from the Slovenian "rocky place". Karst areas have soluble bedrock, cracks and water. The slightly acidic rain and surface water is able to dissolve and erode small amounts of rock and carry them away. When water gets into cracks, it dissolves the rock and forms caves and caverns.

The Yorkshire Dales, Burren (Co. Claire, Ireland) and Gottesackerplateau (Germany) are all examples of Karst landscapes.

Answer: CO2

Water is not able to dissolve limestone by itself, however water containing carbon dioxide (CO2) is slightly acidic and is able to dissolve limestone.

Carbon dioxide is naturally present in the air, currently it's about 0.028% of our atmosphere. Living things breathe air, burn the oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide. When the rainwater falls, it absorbs some carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. However the spaces in soil contain a much higher proportion of biogenetic CO2 - mostly from bacteria. As the water flows though the soil it picks up additional dissolved CO2 to form carbonic acid.
CO2 + H20 ---> H2CO3=H+ + HCO3-

This will slowly dissolve limestone:
H+ + HCO3- + CaCO3 ---> Ca(2+) + 2 HCO(3-)

Answer: CaC2

The one thing we must have is light! CaC2 is calcium carbide which reacts with water to make acetylene.
CaC2 + 2 H2O --> Ca(OH)2 + C2H2
Carbide lamps have a chamber for carbide and a water reservoir. The water drips onto the carbide and the acetylene burns with an intense white flame. Although they are a bit smelly (called stinkys) and can burn your ropes and hands if you're careless, they are almost indestructible and the burn time is limited only by the amount of carbide you can carry. 2 kg of carbide will give us light for over 36 hours. On a big expedition we can leave caches of carbide around the cave. We'll have some battery lamps too for the wet/windy sections, but we can't carry enough batteries for the whole trip.
Water (H2O) is usually easy to find in a cave, as is oxygen (O2). We'll save the alcohol (CH3CH2OH) for when we get out!

Answer: Trogloxenes

All the "Trogs" spend time in caves. (trog=cave, from the Greek)
Troglobites (bios=life) live permanently in the cave and have adapted for it, they can't live outside.
Troglophiles (phileo=love) can venture outside caves but can live and feed entirely inside. They may have some adaptions for cave life.
Trogloxenes (xenos=visitor) are temporary cave residents which freely move in and out of the cave. These cave visitors seek out such a habitat from choice, and never complete their entire life cycle in the cave.
Troglodyte is a confusing term. It originally meant cave dweller i.e. a caveman. But it is non specific and is no longer used to classify cave life. It's also the species name of the chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) and a genus of singing birds including the common wrens (Troglodytes troglodytes) neither of which spend any significant time in caves.

Answer: Vadose

The passage was formed by the stream eroding downwards, just as they do above ground. The stream carries pebbles and sand and erodes by abrasion and solution only at the bottom, resulting in a tall narrow passage. The area above the water table where this can occur is called the vadose zone and this is a vadose passage.

Answer: While completely underwater

This is an example of a phreatic passage, i.e. one that was formed completely underwater. The water dissolves the rock evenly all round and can produce almost perfect tubes - sometimes the size of train tunnels. As the water table drops, the passage empties, and a small stream can erode a vadose slot in the floor - forming a keyhole passage.

Answer: Stalagmites

Stalactites and stalagmites are types of speleothems. As water laden with dissolved minerals drips from the roof, some minerals are deposited which accumulate to form stalactites. When the drip lands on the floor some of it evaporates, depositing more minerals there to form stalagmites.

Not only are they rather beautiful, by taking samples and analysing the chemical composition of the layers, we can deduce past temperature and rainfall patterns.

Answer: Sump

A whaletail is a descender (friction device for abseiling down ropes) consisting of a machined aluminium block with slots, used almost exclusively by Australians.
A vug is a cavity filled with crystals.
Some streams in farming areas carry animal dung and are quite sewer-like, but the normal term is "Sump"

Answer: Lycopodium

All of these can be used to trace water. Fluorescein used to be widely used and can be detected in tiny quantities, but fluorescent green water can be quite upsetting to locals wanting to use the water for drinking. Leucophor is a fluorescent whitener which is more discreet, but can still cause the water to glow under ultraviolet light - creepy. Salt can be detected in small quantities by changes in water resistance - but you do need to dump a lot of it so it's heavy to carry and can be harmful to aquatic life until it's very diluted. Lycopodium spores are the most troublesome, but are the most benign. You have to filter them out with fine nets and identify them under a microscope.

The longest successful water trace was from Beysehir Golu to the Manavgat springs, in Turkey, over a distance of 130km. 390kg of fluorescein was used and the dye reappeared after 366 days.