stalactite vs stalagmite
Definitions
noun
- a cylinder of calcium carbonate hanging from the roof of a limestone cave
Examples
Even as he watched, a droplet of water dripped heavily down from a stalactite far overhead, landing in the pond with fat, lazy ripples.
Hither ascended a _cantonnier_ when the new road was made up the valley, and here he found chipped flints of primeval man, a polished celt, a scrap of Samian ware, and in a niche at the side sealed up with stalactite, a tiny earthenware pitcher 2-1/2 inches high, a leaden spindle-whorl, some shells, and a toy sheep-bell.
Icicles, stalactites, stalagmites, lava tubes, and some crystals may be considered cylindrical, but the rest of the nonbiotic Universe has other shapes.
Definitions
noun
- a cylinder of calcium carbonate projecting upward from the floor of a limestone cave
Examples
There was no crust of stalagmite overlying the mud in which the human skeleton was found, and no bones of other animals in the mud with the skeleton; but just before our visit in 1860 the tusk of a bear had been met with in some mud in a lateral embranchment of the cave, in a situation precisely similar to b, Figure 1, and on a level corresponding with that of the human skeleton.
Speleothems (stalactites, stalagmites, flowstone) usually display a layered or banded structure in cross section, not unlike growth rings in a tree.
He has also shown through his research that stalagmites in caves do not require a long time to form.
