cave system

Larger cave systems often have complex patterns of superimposed passages that represent a long history of cave development. The oldest passages, usually but not necessarily those at the highest elevations, may have formed before the glaciations of the Quaternary. The youngest passages may be part of…

Others make up complicated cave systems in which many vertical infeeders join to form master streams that descend to base level as waterfalls plunging down pits. One of the largest such systems is the group of caves on the Huautla Plateau in Mexico. The greatest relief from the highest…

…for exploration and integrate the cave system.

…transport clastic sediment through a cave system. The clastic material is derived from borderlands where it is carried into the karst by sinking streams, from overlying sandstone and shale caprock, from surface soils that are washed underground through sinkholes, and from the insoluble residue of the limestone bedrock. Some of…