Rawhiti Cave become increasingly finer deeper down into the cave. A short walking track leads halfway down into the cavernous opening to a viewing platform. The diverse twilight-zone flora near the entrance of Rawhiti Cave makes this cave nationally significant. Over long periods of time, plant growth on the cave formations causes them to grow towards the sunlight as more calcium carbonate is deposited regularly on top of the plant growth. This phenomenon, called phytokarst, is most evident on the larger stalactites near the cave entrance, which are strongly curved outwards due to the heavy moss and fern growth on their sunlit
Calcium carbonate equilibrium pressure must exceed total atmospheric pressure of 101 kPa, which happens at 898 °C. Calcium carbonate is poorly soluble in pure water (47 mg/L at normal atmospheric CO partial pressure as shown below). The equilibrium of its solution is given by the equation (with dissolved calcium carbonate on the right): where the solubility product for [Ca] [CO] is given as anywhere from "K" = 3.7×10 to "K" = 8.7×10 at 25 °C, depending upon the data source. What the equation means is that the product of molar concentration of calcium ions (moles of dissolved Ca per liter of solution)