GEOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -Caves are formed by the dissolution of limestone. Rainwater picks up carbon dioxide from the air and as it percolates through the soil, which turns into a weak acid. This slowly dissolves out the limestone along the joints, bedding planes and fractures, some of which become enlarged enough to form caves.

Detailed explanation-2: -The water and carbon dioxide together form carbonic acid. This carbonic acid continues to seep into the soil and through the limestone until it reaches the water table, which is the upper limit at which ground is saturated with water.

Detailed explanation-3: -There, due to high pressures that can form within the soil, a lot of CO2 ends up dissolved in water to make carbonic acid. The acidified water will keep percolating downward until it reaches the limestone. Solution caves form when this acidified water has a way into the rock.

Detailed explanation-4: -As water and carbon dioxide mix it forms a weak acid called carbonic acid, which helps to dissolve underlying rock. When water seeps into the air-filled cave it loses carbon dioxide to the cave atmosphere causing the water to precipitate calcite deposits in different forms.

Detailed explanation-5: -But the most common caves are solution caves, which form as water dissolves soluble rocks such as limestone or gypsum. Most limestone caves result from carbonic acid, the weak acid formed when carbon dioxide (CO2) gas dissolves in water.