Black Chasm Cave Black Chasm Cavern are derivative of the marble bedrock, containing primarily calcium or calcium carbonate (CaCO3). There are a variety of formations in Black Chasm Cavern, including stalactites, stalagmites, columns, flowstone, draperies, ribbons, angel's wings, cave bacon, soda straws, helictites, false floors, and others. Black Chasm Cavern is home to amphipods, which live in the lakes of the cave. The amphipods are adapted to life without light, having no pigmentation or eyesight. Also living within the cave, and adapted to total darkness, is the Banksula grubbsi arachnid. Related to the harvestman, the Banksula grubbsi has a multi-segmented body that appears
Carbonate compensation depth Carbonate compensation depth Calcite compensation depth (CCD) is the depth in the oceans below which the rate of supply of calcite (calcium carbonate) lags behind the rate of solvation, such that no calcite is preserved. Aragonite compensation depth (hence ACD) describes the same behaviour in reference to aragonitic carbonates. Aragonite is more soluble than calcite, so the aragonite compensation depth is generally shallower than the calcite compensation depth. Calcium carbonate is essentially insoluble in sea surface waters today. Shells of dead calcareous plankton sinking to deeper waters are practically unaltered until reaching the lysocline where the solubility increases dramatically. By