Marsha Moores age 14, of Dallas, Texas, for her question:
The tour through Carlsbad Caverns takes four hours if you let the elevator return you to the surface. If you walk the last stretch, you will spend five hours in this underground wonderland. Carlsbad is a National Park and a ranger will be your guide. When the trip is over you probably never will be able to decide which of the scenic wonders was most impressive.
Early in the journey is Green Lake, a calm pool amid a grove of treelike stalagmites. Then there is the Kings Palaces a large cavern graced with festoons, chandeliers and gleaming columns of calcit. Next is the Queen's Chamber, ornate with hanging draperies of smooth stone. Later you enter the vast Hall of the Giants. At the far, far end you see a cluster of tall towers, among them Twin Domes and Giant Dome. All the fantastic forms are embroidered with pleated folds, fringes and clusters of icicles, made of smooth, moist stone.
This trip shows but a fraction of the vast underground city. There are two more levels below this one which are not open to the public. In fact, Carlsbad is the largest cave system so far discovered in the whole world.
These caves were nibbled bit by bit into the Guadalupe Mountains. This range straddles the borderline of Texas and New Mexico. Guadalupe Peak, 8,751 feet tall, is the highest in the range and also the highest point in Texas. The caves are in a spur of the range into New Mexico. An area of 45,847 acres is set aside as a National Park. The hilly surface is a sanctuary of semi‑desert plant and wild life.
All caves are carved out by dripping rain water. And rain in this semi desert is scarce. So we know that these monster caverns must have been a long, long time a‑building. Swift, sharp showers fall down upon those limestone hills and seep down through the surface. Limestone tends to dissolve easily in running water. And the water gathers up a load of chemicals as it seeps through the soil.
It steals lime from the limestone and weakens the rock. Peak spots fall and bits of rock chips crack and crumble. Holes and crevices form underground and grow into caves and caverns. Sometimes the seeping water gathers in an underground puddle. The puddle becomes a lake. A stream of underground water may father and dig itself a tunnel. In time the seeping water digs itself a huge underground city. Its rooms and corridors must be decorated.
The dripping water from the ceiling evaporates. But the load of dissolved chemicals it carries stays behind, h little pile of calcite stone will be left. It grows and grows into a stony icicle ‑ a stalactite. Its dagger tip drips water to the floor. This too evaporates. A pile of calcite reaches up to form a stalagmite. More dripping water forms stony festoons and draperies along the walls.
Carlsbad Caverns, like all caves, were done by running water. They were decorated as the water evaporated, leaving behind the chemicals it dissolved from the limestone hills.