Shield Formations
Posted: Aug 9, 2007 9:36 am
This discussion on Shield Formations has gone on for years and years. If you go to "Cave Minerals of the World", you can find references in the Bibliography to some of the articles that have been written on the subject.
The question I raised many, many years ago is this: Is a Shield Formation determined by it's origin, or it's shape? Is there more than one process that creates formations of this shape?
If we had one isolated shield formation in a cave, I might buy the water-under-presssure-in-a-crack theory. But when there are dozens and dozens, all at different angles, that is just too bizarre to seriously believe.
Crystals growth and orientation are a much more simple explanation. And water chemistry may just be the key.
And to all of you who cave in limestone: How do you get all this water under pressure in tiny cracks, with all the big cracks available to drain it out? I certainly can't figure that theory out. At least not in the limestone I see here in Tennessee.
Larry E. Matthews
Professional Geologist
NSS #6792-F
The question I raised many, many years ago is this: Is a Shield Formation determined by it's origin, or it's shape? Is there more than one process that creates formations of this shape?
If we had one isolated shield formation in a cave, I might buy the water-under-presssure-in-a-crack theory. But when there are dozens and dozens, all at different angles, that is just too bizarre to seriously believe.
Crystals growth and orientation are a much more simple explanation. And water chemistry may just be the key.
And to all of you who cave in limestone: How do you get all this water under pressure in tiny cracks, with all the big cracks available to drain it out? I certainly can't figure that theory out. At least not in the limestone I see here in Tennessee.
Larry E. Matthews
Professional Geologist
NSS #6792-F