#cave systems

cave ecosystems are awesome.

here are a few articles about some cave systems that go into the different creatures you can find in caves:

that last link has a good list of the general categories of animal that live in caves and the different zones in a cave. I'll copy them over for quick reading access

cave creatures:

Trogloxenes (“Visitors”): Species that come and go from the cave, most often using it for nesting, giving birth, or hibernating through the winter. (Examples: bats, bears, raccoons, moths, woodrats.)

Troglophiles (“Explorers”): These species are permanent cave residents who still venture outside from time to time, often seeking food or to mate. (Examples: crayfish, beetles, frogs, salamanders, crickets.)

Troglobites (“Hermits”): These permanent cave residents have fully adjusted to life in complete darkness; so much so that they cannot leave their specific underground habitats, making them endemic to a single cave. (Examples: cave fish, Kentucky cave shrimp, millipedes and other insects.)

and cave zones:

Entrance Zone – Where a subterranean cave meets surface habitat.

Twilight Zone – Light from the surface is diminished, but certain plant species can still grow.

Transition Zone – All light is completely diminished, but other environmental factors from the surface such as temperature and precipitation can still influence conditions here.

Deep Zone – No light, high humidity with low evaporation, and constant temperatures. Species living in the deep zone have fully adapted to life in these conditions and often display noticeable physical adaptations, such as cavefish (sometimes referred to as “ghost fish”).

invertebrates appear to be the most common cave critters, especially in the deeper areas. vertebrates that live in caves seem to primarily be aquatic or amphibious. cave dwelling mammals most typically only use caves on a temporary or part-time basis. the deeper into a cave you go, the less life you'll see and the more likely you are to only find invertebrates.

This third series of maps for @jayrockin​‘s “Runaway to the Stars” project represent the planet their Bugferret alien species calls home, a cold, seasonless world with much of its water held up in immense ice sheets and extensive cave systems.  As such, a great deal of this world’s oceanic crust is exposed to the air, concentrating what little seawater remains at the subduction trenches and other extremely old, low-lying portions of crust.

First, the planet’s plate tectonics, with the plate boundaries defined in white (for divergent boundaries), black (for convergent boundaries), and purple (for transform boundaries) and the directions of drift marked by red arrows, in Equirectangular Projection and Poles-Centered perspective.

The maps below show the planet’s elevation data, first in grayscale with no color gradient applied, in Equirectangular Projection and Poles-Centered perspective;

then with the color gradient applied, also in Equirectangular Projection and Poles-Centered perspective;

and then with the color gradient once again removed but now showing the planet’s liquid water, in Equirectangular Projection only.

The second phase of this commission focused on the planet’s ice sheets and the liquid water hidden beneath it them. First, there’s the raw elevation data for the ice in relation to “sea level” -with no contiguous ocean to define this, it is instead defined as 200 meters above the average continental shelf’s edges, correlating to Earth’s own sea level-, along with a key, in Equirectangular Projection;

then, the same data with a color gradient applied;

and again, this time also showing how many meters of ice sit atop the subglacial bodies of water;

and lastly, the thickness of the ice over land as well as water, first in grayscale;

and then with a color gradient applied.

The thickest point in Earth’s own ice sheets is 4,776 meters deep, just a fraction of the Bugferret planet’s maximum of 18,000 meters between the top of the ice sheet and the trench-sea hidden beneath it.

The map below shows the volcanic activity on this planet. Volcanoes marked in pink have erupted in the past millennium, and those marked in white have erupted in the past 300 years Looking back to the ice-cover map that also shows the subglacial water, you can see how some of those lakes are caused by recent eruptions, as are the few ice-free mountain peaks in the higher latitudes.

Lastly, the third phase of this project mapped out the cave systems, expanded tremendously both by modern Bugferret activity and previous eons of dissolution and upheaval by organisms more comparable to fungi, plants, and burrowing detritivores. The first map below shows all of the major caverns combined into one layer, color-coded by vertical position in relation to the so-called sea level, instead of depth beneath the local surface.

I mapped out these caves in four overlapping layers, here color-coded to represent the tallness of a given chamber.  The first of these layers contains those caves closest to the surface;

a bit further beneath the surface;

further down still;

and the lowest layer of all, with its shallowest caves sitting no less than 8,500 meters beneath their local surface.

All the caves shown here can be accessed from the surface, either directly or in connection to other caves, even if the connecting passages are too narrow to be visible at this resolution. Some of these connections can be fully seen or at least suggested in the cross section below, showing the vertical positions of the caverns beneath a mountain range, or a small slice thereof.

This cross section is shown again with a map that marks its location, and that also includes the ice sheets, subglacial and exposed liquid water, and combined caves.

These maps were all created in Photopea. My reddit post dedicated to this project, wherein you can see the highest resolution versions of these images, is linked here.

Why Does Jewel Cave Sparkle? 80-Million-Year Mystery

Jewel Cave stretches 175 surveyed miles, making it America's 2nd-longest cave system after Mammoth Cave's 412 miles. 95% of the cave's walls are coated in calcite crystal formations created over 80 million years by acidic groundwater dissolving limestone. Frank and Charles Michaud discovered the cav

Why Does Jewel Cave Sparkle? 80-Million-Year Mystery

Jewel Cave stretches 175 surveyed miles, making it America's 2nd-longest cave system after Mammoth Cave's 412 miles. 95% of the cave's walls are coated in calcite crystal formations created over 80 million years by acidic groundwater dissolving limestone. Frank and Charles Michaud discovered the cav

Yorkshire Dales Limestone: England's Hidden Underground World

Yorkshire Dales limestone formed 330 million years ago in tropical seas and spans 750 square kilometers with 2.5 million cubic meters of usable aquifer The region contains 80+ recorded cave systems, including Ingleborough Cave extending 1,500 meters with 600 meters accessible to visitors Limestone d

Yorkshire Dales Limestone: England's Hidden Underground World

Yorkshire Dales limestone formed 330 million years ago in tropical seas and spans 750 square kilometers with 2.5 million cubic meters of usable aquifer The region contains 80+ recorded cave systems, including Ingleborough Cave extending 1,500 meters with 600 meters accessible to visitors Limestone d