Deep
| July 19, 2017
"W atch your step and hold onto the railing” announces our guide as he swings open a door that reveals a dark narrow passageway leading far down into something we can’t see. “Oh and put on your sweatshirts. It’s about to get really chilly.” Chilly? It’s 92 degrees outside. But moments later as we trek through the stone tunnel I’m grateful for his advice. We are entering a world of mystery and beauty; a world one can walk right over and never realize exists.
Skyline Caverns is an underground wonderland in Virginia’s Shenandoah Mountains. It was discovered by Dr. Walter Scott Amos in 1973 when he and his crew were digging in what is now the parking lot. Dr. Amos was a retired geologist contracted by government agencies to seek out caverns in the area around the picturesque Skyline Drive a 105-mile road that runs the entire length of Shenandoah National Park in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. When Amos spotted camel crickets a species that lives only in dark damp places he knew he’d struck gold. But although it is breathtaking Skyline Caverns is only one of many such caverns around the globe.
What is a cavern?
A cavern or underground cave is a space beneath the earth often formed through natural processes like earthquakes volcanoes or erosion (the process of wind rain and water wearing away at the earth.) Rivers or streams filled with minerals flow through cracks in the hard rock eventually crashing through with all their force and creating an underground river.
While most caves develop only in dissolvable rock materials like limestone gypsum or marble a strong enough flow of water can form beautiful elaborate caves even in the toughest forms of rock — like granite the type of rock your countertops might come from. Remember the story of Rabi Akiva before he began learning Torah? When he saw a rock in which a tiny yet steady drip of water had created a cavity over a long period of time he declared “If little droplets of water could bore through hard rock then surely the Torah — compared to water — can make its way into my heart.”
Most times the water eventually diverts its path leaving the cave dry. Thank goodness… Now we can go exploring!
Stalactites and Stalagmites
Thankfully these caverns have installed lighting that enables us to see through the darkness… and what we see is amazing. Incredible cave formations most famously stalagmites and stalactites — those icicle-shaped things that first come to mind when you think “caverns” — transform these dark dirt-encrusted places into underground museums.
Stalagmites which grow up from the floor and stalactites which grow down from the ceiling grow only about 1 inch every 100 years. Eventually they may meet and create stunning floor-to-ceiling columns like the marvelous ones exhibited in Luray Caverns just a short drive away. (Excerpted from Mishpacha Jr. Issue 669)
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