Carlsbad Caverns National Park
| Carlsbad Caverns National Park | |
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IUCN category II (national park)
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The cave is well-known for its many calcite formations such as this column and array of stalactites
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Location in the United States
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| Location | Eddy County, New Mexico, United States |
| Nearest city | Carlsbad, New Mexico |
| Coordinates | 32°10′31″N 104°26′38″WCoordinates: 32°10′31″N 104°26′38″W |
| Area | 46,766 acres (18,926 ha) 339 acres (137 ha) private[1] |
| Established | May 14, 1930 |
| Visitors | 465,912 (in 2018)[2] |
| Governing body | National Park Service |
| Website | Official website  |
| Type | Natural |
| Criteria | vii, viii |
| Designated | 1995 (19th session) |
| Reference no. | 721 |
| State Party |  United States |
| Region | North America |
Carlsbad Caverns National Park is an American national park in the Guadalupe Mountains of southeastern New Mexico. The primary attraction of the park is the show cave, Carlsbad Cavern. Visitors to the cave can hike in on their own via the natural entrance or take an elevator from the visitor center.
The park entrance is located on US Highway 62/180, approximately 18 miles (29 km) southwest of Carlsbad, New Mexico. Carlsbad Caverns National Park participates in the Junior Ranger Program.[3] The park has two entries on the National Register of Historic Places: The Caverns Historic District and the Rattlesnake Springs Historic District.[4] Approximately two thirds of the park has been set aside as a wilderness area, helping to ensure no future changes will be made to the habitat.
Carlsbad Cavern includes a large limestone chamber, named simply the Big Room, which is almost 4,000 feet (1,220 m) long, 625 feet (191 m) wide, and 255 feet (78 m) high at its highest point. The Big Room is the fifth largest chamber in North America and the twenty-eighth largest in the world.
Contents
Geology[edit]
Capitan Reef[edit]
An estimated 250 million years ago, the area surrounding Carlsbad Caverns National Park served as the coastline for an inland sea. Present in the sea was a plethora of marine life, whose remains formed a reef.[5] Unlike modern reef growths, the Permian reef contained bryozoans, sponges, and other microorganisms. After the Permian Period, most of the water evaporated and the reef was buried by evaporites and other sediments. Tectonic movement occurred during the late Cenozoic, uplifting the reef above ground. Susceptible to erosion, water sculpted the Guadalupe Mountain region into its present-day state.[6]
Speleogenesis[edit]
Carlsbad Caverns National Park is situated in a bed of limestone above groundwater level. During cavern development, it was within the groundwater zone.[citation needed] Deep below the limestones are petroleum reserves (part of the Mid-Continent Oil Field). At a time near the end of the Cenozoic, hydrogen sulfide (H2S) began to seep upwards from the petroleum into the groundwater. The combination of hydrogen sulfide and oxygen from the water formed sulfuric acid: H2S + 2O2 → H2SO4. The sulfuric acid then continued upward, aggressively dissolving the limestone deposits to form caverns. The presence of gypsum within the cave is a confirmation of the occurrence of this process, as it is a byproduct of the reaction between sulfuric acid and limestone.[5] Once the acidic groundwater drained from the caverns, speleothems began to be deposited within the cavern. Erosion above ground created the natural entrance to the Carlsbad Caverns within the last million years. Exposure to the surface has allowed for the influx of air into the cavern. Rainwater and snowmelt percolating downward into the ground pick up carbon dioxide; once this water reaches a cavern ceiling, it precipitates and evaporates, leaving behind a small calcium carbonate deposit. Growths from the roof downward formed through this process are known as stalactites. Additionally, water on the floor of the caverns can contain carbonic acid and generate mineral deposits by evaporation. Growths from the floor upward through this process are known as stalagmites. Different formations of speleothems include columns, soda straws, draperies, helictites, and popcorn. Changes in the ambient air temperature and rainfall affect the rate of growth of speleothems, as higher temperatures increase carbon dioxide production rates within the overlying soil. The color of the speleothems is determined by the trace constituents in the minerals of the formation.[citation needed]
Climate[edit]
According to the Köppen climate classification system, Carlsbad Caverns National Park has a Cold Winter, Semi-Arid Climate (‘’BSk’’). The plant hardiness zone at the visitor center is 8a with an average annual extreme minimum air temperature of 11.7 °F (-11.3 °C)[7].
| hideClimate data for Carlsbad Caverns National Park Visitor Center, Carlsbad, Eddy County, New Mexico (1981 – 2010 averages). | |||||||||||||
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| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Average high °F (°C) | 56.7 (13.7) | 61.5 (16.4) | 68.2 (20.1) | 76.2 (24.6) | 84.7 (29.3) | 92.3 (33.5) | 91.9 (33.3) | 90.4 (32.4) | 84.5 (29.2) | 75.9 (24.4) | 65.9 (18.8) | 57.0 (13.9) | 75.5 (24.2) |
| Daily mean °F (°C) | 44.3 (6.8) | 48.1 (8.9) | 54.2 (12.3) | 61.8 (16.6) | 70.8 (21.6) | 78.2 (25.7) | 79.3 (26.3) | 77.9 (25.5) | 71.9 (22.2) | 62.8 (17.1) | 52.5 (11.4) | 44.4 (6.9) | 62.2 (16.8) |
| Average low °F (°C) | 31.8 (−0.1) | 34.6 (1.4) | 40.2 (4.6) | 47.5 (8.6) | 56.9 (13.8) | 64.2 (17.9) | 66.7 (19.3) | 65.5 (18.6) | 59.2 (15.1) | 49.7 (9.8) | 39.1 (3.9) | 31.8 (−0.1) | 49.0 (9.4) |
| Average precipitation inches (mm) | 0.38 (9.7) | 0.47 (12) | 0.46 (12) | 0.64 (16) | 1.28 (33) | 1.66 (42) | 1.97 (50) | 2.38 (60) | 2.63 (67) | 1.27 (32) | 0.47 (12) | 0.52 (13) | 14.13 (359) |
| Average relative humidity (%) | 42.8 | 38.0 | 32.9 | 27.8 | 30.2 | 35.0 | 43.8 | 48.3 | 49.2 | 45.5 | 41.1 | 43.4 | 39.9 |
| Source: PRISM Climate Group[8] | |||||||||||||
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Average Dew Point °F | 23.1 | 23.7 | 25.6 | 28.2 | 38.0 | 48.3 | 55.4 | 56.8 | 51.8 | 41.4 | 29.5 | 23.5 | 37.2 |
| Average Dew Point °C | -4.9 | -4.6 | -3.6 | -2.1 | 3.3 | 9.1 | 13.0 | 13.8 | 11.0 | 5.2 | -1.4 | -4.7 | 2.9 |
Source: PRISM Climate Group[8]
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History[edit]
In 1898, a teenager named Jim White explored the cavern with a homemade wire ladder. He named many of the rooms, including the Big Room, New Mexico Room, Kings Palace, Queens Chamber, Papoose Room, and Green Lake Room. He also named many of the cave's more prominent formations, such as the Totem Pole, Witch's Finger, Giant Dome, Bottomless Pit, Fairyland, Iceberg Rock, Temple of the Sun, and Rock of Ages.
Max Frisch incorporates the story about White's discovery of the caves in his novel I'm Not Stiller.
The town of Carlsbad, which lends its name to the cavern and national park, is in turn named after the Czech town formerly known by the German name Karlsbad (English spelling Carlsbad) and now known by the Czech name Karlovy Vary, both of which mean "Charles' Bath[s]."
Until 1932, visitors to the cavern had to walk down a switchback ramp that took them 750 feet (230 m) below the surface. The walk back up was tiring for some. In 1932 the national park opened up a large visitor center building that contained two elevators that would take visitors in and out of the caverns below. The new center included a cafeteria, waiting room, museum and first aid area.[9]
Legislative history[edit]
- October 25, 1923 – President Calvin Coolidge signed a proclamation (1679-Oct. 25, 1923-43 Stat. 1929) establishing Carlsbad Cave National Monument.[10]
- April 2, 1924 – President Calvin Coolidge issued an executive order (3984) for a possible national park or monument at the site.[11]
- May 3, 1928 – a supplemental executive order (4870) was issued reserving additional land for the possible monument or park.[12]
- May 14, 1930 – an act of the United States Congress (46 Stat. 279) established Carlsbad Caverns National Park to be directed by the Secretary of the Interior and administered by the National Park Service.[13]
- June 17, 1930 – President Herbert Hoover signed Executive Order 5370 reserving additional land for classification.[14]
- November 10, 1978 – Carlsbad Caverns Wilderness was established with the National Parks and Recreation Act (95-625) signed by President Jimmy Carter.[15]
Named rooms[edit]
Some of the following rooms are not open to the public because of inaccessibility and safety issues.
- Balloon Ballroom
- Located in the ceiling above the main entrance hall, this small room was first accessed by tying a rope to a bunch of balloons and floating them into the passage.
- Bat Cave
- A large, unadorned rocky passage connected to the main entrance corridor. The majority of the cave's bat population lives in this portion of the cave, which was mined for bat guano in the early 20th century.
- Bell Cord Room
- Named for a long, narrow stalactite coming through a hole in the ceiling, resembling the rope coming through the roof of a belfry. This room is located at the end of the Left Hand Tunnel.
- Bifrost Room
- Discovered in 1982, it is located in the ceiling above Lake of the Clouds. Its name refers to a Norse myth about a world in the sky that was accessed from Earth by a rainbow (the "Bifrost Bridge"). The room was given this name because of its location above the Lake of the Clouds and its colorful oxide-stained formations.
- Big Room or The Hall of the Giants
- The largest chamber in Carlsbad Caverns, with a floor space of 357,469 square feet (33,210 m2).[16]
- Chocolate High
- A maze of small passages totalling nearly a mile (1500 m) in combined length, discovered in 1993 above a mud-filled pit in the New Mexico Room known as Chocolate Drop.
- Green Lake Room
- The uppermost of the "Scenic Rooms", it is named for a deep, malachite-colored pool in the corner of the room. In the early 1960s, when the military was testing the feasibility of Carlsbad Cavern as an emergency fallout shelter, the Green Lake was used to look for ripples caused by a nuclear bomb test many miles away. None appeared.
- Guadalupe Room
- Discovered by a park ranger in 1966, this is the second largest room in Carlsbad Caverns. It is known for its dense collection of "soda straw" stalactites.
- Hall of the White Giant
- A large chamber containing a large, white stalagmite. Rangers regularly lead special wild-cave tours to this room.
- Halloween Hall
- A room roughly 30 feet in length located above the Spirit World. Named for its discovery on October 31, 2013.
- King's Palace
- The first of four chambers in a wing known as the "scenic rooms", it is named for a large castle-like formation in the center of the room.
- Lake of the Clouds
- The lowest known point in the cave. It is located in a side passage off the Left Hand Tunnel. It is named for its large lake containing globular, cloud-like rock formations that formed under water when the lake level was much higher.
- Left Hand Tunnel
- A long, straight passage marked by deep fissures in the floor. These fissures are not known to lead anywhere. The Left Hand Tunnel leads to the Lake of the Clouds and the Bell Cord Room.
- Mabel's Room
- A moderate-sized room located past the Talcum Passage in Lower Cave.
- Mystery Room
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