Buried treasures: constructing--and deconstructing--cave formations.(Features)(Cover story)

From: Science News | Date: April 29, 2006| Author: Perkins, Sid | Copyright information

In the summer of 2003, geologist Leslie A. Melim and two of her undergrads were exploring a 6-meter-by-12-m chamber deep within New Mexico's Carlsbad Caverns. As the team members were on their hands and knees conducting a detailed survey of the cave floor, one of the students blurted out, "Hey, what's this?"

"This;' says Melim, was an oddly configured carpet of white minerals lining a shallow basin that had long ago, when the region's climate was wetter, held water. The ...

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