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| | Geobit 11: Caves in Illinois: Our Subterranean Landscape |
 | | The carbonic acid-enriched rainwater, snow melt, and soil water dissolves the limestone and dolomite, enlarging crevices and caves. |
 | | With the loss of carbon dioxide, the water becomes too alkaline to hold all the minerals that it dissolved in the soil zone, and carbonate minerals (such as calcite) are slowly deposited as stalactites, stalagmites, and flowstone within the cave. |
 | | Illinois caves provide a unique habitat for numerous unusual organisms, including bats, salamanders, fish, the near-microscopic, pillbug-like creatures called isopods, the shrimp-like creatures called amphipods, fungi, and microscopic bacteria. |
| www.isgs.uiuc.edu /servs/pubs/geobits-pub/geobit11/geobit11.htm (1908 words) |
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