Crystal Grottoes facts for kids
Crystal Grottoes is a cool show cave in Maryland, a state in the U.S.. It's the only show cave in Maryland! You can find it on Maryland Route 34, between the towns of Boonsboro and the famous Antietam National Battlefield.
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How Was Crystal Grottoes Discovered?
Crystal Grottoes was found by accident in 1920. A team of workers was digging for gravel to build a road. They were using a drill to make holes for explosives.
Suddenly, a drill bit vanished into a hole! The workers quickly realized they had found a hidden cave. They used controlled blasting to create the entrance we use today.
In 1922, the cave opened its doors to visitors. Later, in 1968, explorers mapped out about half a mile of passages. But don't worry, the tour only covers about one-third of the cave. It takes about 30 to 35 minutes to explore this amazing underground world.
What Kind of Cave is Crystal Grottoes?
Crystal Grottoes is a solutional cave. This means it formed when water slowly dissolved rock over a very long time. It's found in a karst area, which is a type of landscape where the ground is made of soluble rock like limestone or dolomite.
The cave formed in a special type of rock called Tomstown Dolomite. The passages inside the cave are mostly flat, but they are often tall and narrow.
A lot of brown and red clay fills much of the cave. To make the tour paths, workers had to remove about 4 to 6 feet of this clay from 900 feet of passages. Some parts of the cave not open to the public are still filled with clay, making them very tight crawlways. There are no rivers flowing through the cave, but there is a small pool of water that drips from the ceiling.
Exploring the Crystal Grottoes
Most of the rooms in Crystal Grottoes are full of amazing rock formations called speleothems. These include stalactites (which hang from the ceiling), flowstone (which looks like frozen waterfalls), and columns (which form when stalactites and stalagmites meet).
These formations are usually white or light yellow. But in one special area called Fairyland, the formations have a light red color. This color comes from tiny bits of iron in the rock.
The First Room
The first room you enter is about 8 feet below the entrance building. It's shaped like a flattened oval, about 30 feet long, 10 feet wide, and 15 feet high. At each end, the passage gets very narrow because of mud and rock.
This room used to have many more formations. But some were removed during the quarrying and clearing work. You can still see lots of flowstone and stalactites along the west wall.
Beautiful Passages and Formations
As you walk through the cave, you'll see that the passages are covered in formations. You'll spot delicate draperies (which look like curtains), "bacon" strips (which are thin, wavy draperies), and tall columns.
The colors are usually pure white or light yellow, with some areas showing deeper tints. In the Fairyland passages, you'll see many stalactites and stalagmites with a beautiful light red color.
The Blanket Room
The Blanket Room is the biggest room in the cave. It's about 30 feet long and 20 feet wide, with a ceiling that reaches 20 feet high. Here, large sheets of stalactites and draperies hang down in clusters, looking like giant blankets.
The Lake and Beyond
The path leading to the small lake is also filled with many formations. Some parts of the path are even bridged by flat, layered rock called travertine. This is also seen in other parts of the cave that are not open to the public.
The lake is a small pool fed by water dripping from the ceiling. When it rains a lot, the water builds up, and sometimes they have to pump it out.
The parts of the cave not open to visitors are similar but often narrower. They are covered in orange-brown clay, which is sometimes covered by more rock formations. The public tour covers about one-third of the known cave.
