Cave Exploring
We will use some of our time to explore caves around Philippines since here are many interesting caves that we want to see. And we going to take you whit us on most of the cave exploring trips that we do. So you to can see how they look like.
We going to begin whit the dry caves I think and explore them before we going on to the wet caves there we also need to dive to get from one place to the other.
The plan we have is to begin to explore the caves around Visayas since there is many interesting caves in this region after that we have plans to take you whit us on cave trips in Luzon since there to are many good caves to visit.
When it come to Mindanao so will we look at the general travel and safety advice before we do any planing to go there.
If you looking for the best cave tours in the Philippines Explore the Tabon Caves of Palawan, dubbed as the Philippines' Cradle of Civilization because this is where the oldest human bones in the country was discovered. You can also explore the Callao Cave in Cagayan Valley where one of the chambers has a chapel inside. Other destinations in the Philippines like Sagada, Siargao, Rizal, Quirino, Marinduque, Nueva Vizcaya and Pangasinan to name a few also have fascinating caves that you can go to.
The best time to go on a caving tour in Philippines are best done during the dry season, November to April or Mid-May. Caves are usually connected to rivers so they can get flooded and more slippery during the rainy season.
- Class I Caves – caves with delicate and fragile geological formations, threatened species, cultural, archaeological and paleontological values, and with extremely hazardous conditions. Allowable activity is limited to exploration, mapping, photography, educational and scientific purposes.
- Class II Caves – caves with areas or portions which have hazardous conditions. Contain sensitive geological, archaeological, cultural, historical, and biological values or high quality ecosystem. It may be necessary to close sections of these caves seasonally or permanently. It is open to experienced cavers or guided educational tours/visits.
- Class III Caves – caves generally safe to inexperienced visitors. With no known threatened species and archaeological, geological, national history, cultural and historical values. May also be utilized for economic purposes such as guano extraction and edible birds nest collection.
Different Types Of Caves
Glacier caves are caves formed near the snouts of glaciers. These caves usually exist in the form of long tunnels between the underlying bedrock and glacial ice. The caves are formed when the glacier’s surface meltwater drains downwards through crevasses to the base of the glacier. Here, the meltwater supplies the heat to melt the ice at the base, forming tunnels along the length of the glacier as the meltwater moves downwards. Such glacier caves may be several kilometers in length and end at the mouth of the glacier. The glacier caves are usually tubular conduits with intricately sculptured walls, and floors made of bedrock. These caves can only be explored when the surface of the glacier is frozen. At other times, the caves remain full of meltwater. The Kverkfjöll glacier cave in the Vatnajökull glacier in Iceland is an example of a glacier cave.
Sea caves are found along coasts around the world. A special case is littoral caves, which are formed by wave action in zones of weakness in sea cliffs. Often these weaknesses are faults, but they may also be dykes or bedding-plane contacts. Some wave-cut caves are now above sea level because of later uplift. Elsewhere, in places such as Thailand's Phang Nga Bay, solutional caves have been flooded by the sea and are now subject to littoral erosion. Sea caves are generally around 5 to 50 metres (16 to 164 ft) in length, but may exceed 300 metres (980 ft).
Eolian caves are wind-carved caves that usually form in desert areas. Wind carrying silt or sand particles continuously blast against rocky cliffs or similar structures. Over a long period of time, such erosive action of wind creates cave-like structures in the rock which are about a few tens of meters long. White Rocks and Sand Caves found in the Cumberland Gap National Historical Park, Kentucky, US, are examples of eolian caves.
Rock shelters are produced when the bedrock erosion takes place in insoluble rocks. For example, in places where a resistant rock like sandstone overlies a relatively erosion-susceptible rock like shale, weathering by a stream might wear away the shale leaving behind a rock shelter with a sandstone roof. Although not as complex and intricate as other types of caves, rock shelters are important historical and archeological sites. The Bhimbetka rock shelters, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Madhya Pradesh, India, is a famous example of a rock shelter.
Talus caves are formed by the openings among large boulders that have fallen down into a random heap, often at the bases of cliffs. These unstable deposits are called talus or scree, and may be subject to frequent rockfalls and landslides.
Primary caves are caves that are formed at the same time as the surrounding rock. One of the best examples of such types of caves are lava caves. Lava caves are formed through volcanic activity. When hot liquid lava flows down the slope of a volcano, the surface of the lava cools and solidifies. However, hot liquid lava continues to flow beneath the solidified surface and when the flow stops, a hollow tube remains. Such types of caves are called lava tubes. Lava mold caves, rift caves, inflationary caves, and volcanic conduits are other caves formed by volcanic activity. The Kazumura Cave in Hawaii is an example of a 65.8 km long lava tube.
Solutional caves or karst caves are the most frequently occurring caves. Such caves form in rock that is soluble; most occur in limestone, but they can also form in other rocks including chalk, dolomite, marble, salt, and gypsum. Rock is dissolved by natural acid in groundwater that seeps through bedding planes, faults, joints, and comparable features. Over time cracks enlarge to become caves and cave systems.
The largest and most abundant solutional caves are located in limestone. Limestone dissolves under the action of rainwater and groundwater charged with H2CO3 (carbonic acid) and naturally occurring organic acids. The dissolution process produces a distinctive landform known as karst, characterized by sinkholes and underground drainage. Limestone caves are often adorned with calcium carbonate formations produced through slow precipitation. These include flowstones, stalactites, stalagmites, helictites, soda straws and columns. These secondary mineral deposits in caves are called speleothems.
The portions of a solutional cave that are below the water table or the local level of the groundwater will be flooded.
Lechuguilla Cave in New Mexico and nearby Carlsbad Cavern are now believed to be examples of another type of solutional cave. They were formed by H2S (hydrogen sulfide) gas rising from below, where reservoirs of oil give off sulfurous fumes. This gas mixes with groundwater and forms H2SO4 (sulfuric acid). The acid then dissolves the limestone from below, rather than from above, by acidic water percolating from the surface.
Other types of caves
As we mentioned above, there are other types of caves too, but they’re much rarer.
- Fracture caves form when a soluble layer, such as gypsum, dissolves. After the layer disappears, the rocks around it can collapse, creating a fracture cave.
- Talus caves are formed by the openings among large boulders that have fallen down into a random heap. They should be avoided as they’re usually unstable and dangerous.
- Eolian caves are formed, like their name says, by the wind. They form only in deserts, driven by the sandblasting effect of silt or fine sand being blown against a rock face. They can be surprisingly large and impressive.
- Anchialine caves are usually coastal and contain a mixture of freshwater and saline water (usually sea water). They occur in many parts of the world and often have highly specialized, endemic fauna.
