This was the highlight and reason for my Southern Arizona Adventure This is stage 8 of 9. I was lucky to secure permits for the once monthly photography tour of Kartchner Caverns. Kartchner Caverns State Park strictly forbids any cameras or cellphones in the Caverns. I planned a 4 day 3 night road trip around Southern Arizona anchored by my Kartchner Cavern permit.
I was expecting dark conditions. The State Park turned on all the lights in the Big Room. They don't like turning on all the lights since it can cause an increase in algae. This is the reason they only have one photography tour a month. I found myself adjusting my histograms to not clip the highlights.
Adapt, Improvise, and Overcome. Next time I am going to bracket my shots. I don't know speleothems so I won't even try to identify. If anyone can help me with the identification, I will appreciate it. The features that arouse the greatest curiosity for most cave visitors are speleothems. These stone formations exhibit bizarre patterns and other-worldly forms, which give some caves a wonderland appearance. Caves vary widely in their displays of speleothems because of differences in temperature; overall wetness; and jointing, impurities, and structures in the rocks.
In general, however, one thing caves do have in common is where speleothems form. Although the formation of caves typically takes place below the water table in the zone of saturation, the deposition of speleothems is not possible until caves are above the water table in the zone of aeration.
As soon as the chamber is filled with air, the stage is set for the decoration phase of cave building to begin. The term speleothem refers to the mode of occurrence of a mineralβi. For example, calcite, the most common cave mineral, is not a speleothem, but a calcite stalactite is a speleothem. A stalactite may be made of other minerals, such as halite or gypsum.
