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
Speleothem bedrock or detritus, and/or deposited because of a unique set of conditions in a cave; i.e., the cave environment has influenced the mineral's deposition. 319 variations of cave mineral deposits have been identified. The vast majority of speleothems are calcareous, composed of calcium carbonate in the form of calcite or aragonite, or calcium sulfate in the form of gypsum. Calcareous speleothems form via carbonate dissolution reactions. Rainwater in the soil zone reacts with soil CO to create weakly acidic water via the reaction: As the lower pH water travels through the calcium carbonate bedrock from the surface to the cave