Word to describe small "caves"

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Re: Word to describe small "caves"

Postby Leitmotiv » Dec 23, 2009 2:23 am

I think vug is perfectly apt. Why create a new word, when there is one that already exists?

Even the word itself is short and concise, much like the definition you're trying to find a new word for. I don't think a small cavity needs an acronym. Too much sophistication for so much insignificance!

If you don't like vug, perhaps it could be redefined. Redefinitions of words happen all the time. You could just create a second definition for your need, and if usage increases, it could become more popular than the original definition.
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Re: Word to describe small "caves"

Postby CaverScott » Dec 23, 2009 12:34 pm

Maybe missed reading it, but I often use the phrase "dud hole" :grin:
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Re: Word to describe small "caves"

Postby Rane Curl » Aug 3, 2011 12:45 am

If one considers all underground cavities as caves, then those large enough for humans are "proper caves" (see AGI Glossary of Speleology). Those too small for humans are therefore nonproper caves. This applies also to intersections with the surface: proper entrances or nonproper entrances. Of course, one finds in the literature numerous other terms for small caves, many depending on their placement or origin (as others have indicated previously). The problem in choosing between them lies in what features of the cavity one wishes to invoke or emphasize. I discussed some of these issues some time ago in a paper published in the then NSS Bulletin - available at http://hdl.handle.net/2027.42/62165
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Re: Word to describe small "caves"

Postby agosnell » Aug 3, 2011 2:00 am

Dead end?
pEAcE
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Re: Word to describe small "caves"

Postby Buford » Aug 7, 2011 3:31 pm

I have been looking for this word too, to apply to subterranean stream passage in sandy sediments that were once bedrock-bottomed. In the NC mountains, sedimentation from timbering and land development partially filled in the small streams on my property at some time in the past. Subsequently, erosion has removed some of the fill and exposed the bedrock (gneiss), but in the meantime forest trees and shrubs sent roots throughout the top few inches of the remaining fill. Soil piping and follow-on 'vadose' erosion then created small tunnels along the original stream beds, with floors of bedrock, ceilings of root-mat-and-sediment, and walls of unconsolidated sediments. Not at all karstic, but maybe pseudokarstic.

Alas, these tunnels are too small for cavers, being suitable mainly for aquatic invertebrates, salamanders, and ringneck snakes. But actually, that's not such a bad thing.
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Re: Word to describe small "caves"

Postby Phil Winkler » Aug 7, 2011 4:19 pm

Microkarst?
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Re: Word to describe small "caves"

Postby Rane Curl » Aug 7, 2011 11:42 pm

In the soil mechanics literature this is called "soil piping" (as you mention), which describes both the process and the results. (However the results are NOT also called "soil pipes", which are manufactured conduits.) I would consider them as a class of caves.
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Re: Word to describe small "caves"

Postby Buford » Aug 8, 2011 11:10 am

I thought caves by definition had to be traversible by humans? You can get your arm or leg into many of these subterranean streams, but not the rest of your bod.
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Re: Word to describe small "caves"

Postby Rane Curl » Aug 8, 2011 3:32 pm

That's an obsolete, largely political, definition. Caves enterable by people are called "proper caves". If "caves" were defined only for people, what would be left of "cave biology"? Lots of the "cave" critters live in spaces smaller than people.
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Re: Word to describe small "caves"

Postby Buford » Aug 8, 2011 6:30 pm

I was unaware of that. Thanks for enlightening me. Frankly, I never did like that def anyway - too anthropocentric.
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Re: Word to describe small "caves"

Postby Chads93GT » Aug 8, 2011 10:08 pm

Small cave? How about Cav.......or if thats too long ca....... or just C.
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Re: Word to describe small "caves"

Postby tncaver » Aug 9, 2011 7:28 am

Vug
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Re: Word to describe small "caves"

Postby Jon » Aug 10, 2011 1:28 am

I thought they were called "promising leads". :big grin:
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Re: Word to describe small "caves"

Postby zachfitzner » Jan 25, 2012 7:30 pm

grotto?
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Re: Word to describe small "caves"

Postby tncaver » Jan 25, 2012 8:36 pm

Jon wrote:I thought they were called "promising leads". :big grin:


If they blow then they just might go. :bananabat:
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