File:Jointed limestone (Main Cave, Mammoth Cave, Kentucky, USA) 8 (37420501524).jpg

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Western Kentucky's Mammoth Cave is the longest cave system on Earth, with 412 miles known and mapped as of fall 2017. The name does not refer to the early discovery of fossil mastodon or mammoth bones here. Rather, the name refers to the immense size of many rooms and passages.

Shown here is a limestone wall in Main Cave, the principal trunk passage in the Mammoth Cave Ridge portion of the system. The rocks are marine limestones of the upper Ste. Genevieve Limestone (upper Middle Mississippian). The dark-colored vertical, subvertical, and slanted lines are fractures in the rock called joints. The horizontal lineations are bedding planes and partings. Joints are fractures in rocks along which there has been no differential displacement. If differential displacement has occurred, the fractures are called faults.

Joints in limestone are pathways for groundwater, which is usually slightly acidic. This causes limestone to partially dissolve and the joints widen with time. Eventually, dissolutionally-enlarged joints become cave passages.

Locality: northern wall of Main Cave, east of Standing Rocks, Mammoth Cave Ridge, Mammoth Cave National Park, western Kentucky, USA
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Source Jointed limestone (Main Cave, Mammoth Cave, Kentucky, USA) 8
Author James St. John

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This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
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This image was originally posted to Flickr by James St. John at https://flickr.com/photos/47445767@N05/37420501524 (archive). It was reviewed on 13 October 2019 by FlickreviewR 2 and was confirmed to be licensed under the terms of the cc-by-2.0.

13 October 2019

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current17:39, 13 October 2019Thumbnail for version as of 17:39, 13 October 20193,000 × 4,000 (5 MB)Ser Amantio di Nicolao (talk | contribs)Transferred from Flickr via #flickr2commons

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