Waipuna Cave, New Zealand

 

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Waipuna is one of New Zealand's loveliest caves.
It is easy to enter (down a muddy slope).

The  miniature forest, bedding plane, leaning tower and mud stained pool and have been described on previous pages.

In the "Ball-room" scene below:

Iron minerals stain the limestone red.

Falling water drops have been captured by the high speed electronic flash - they are the white dots over the dark part of the cave.

The floor of the "ball room" is flow stone.
Down to the right is the river, running through the cave's main passage.

IMAGE

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Waipuna cave stream passage 128518 bytes)

This image was used in the Medlab calendar, 1996

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Bedding Plane, Waipuna Cave.

Limestone is a sedimentary rock deposited on the sea bed in layers.
If the limestone is pushed up above sea level, it can be dissolved by rain water which has absorbed carbon dioxide from the overlying soil.
If a soft layer is dissolved by water, it leaves a gap.
The gap is the bedding plane

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