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and post it with your log.
- Email me the answers to the
following questions (DON'T put the answers in your log).
- Take
an altitude reading at river level and another at the top of the
stairs that lead down to the cave.
What is the difference or the total altitude gain (either feet or
meters)?
- In
what geographical region is the cave located?
- What
distinguishing feature of this cave shows that it is a solutional
cave?
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Any log that does not meet
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Huong Tich Grotto
Information
Huong Tich Grotto is a part of the Perfume Pagoda on Perfume
Mountain. The journey to the cave involves a 50 mile journey from
Hanoi to Ben Duc, a 1 hour boat ride on the Yen Vi River and then a
hike up to the top of the mountain.
Every
year around Tet (between February and March), there is an annual
pilgrimage of Buddhists to the Perfume mountain and Chua Huong.
Hundreds of thousands of people from all over the country are drawn
by the Hoi Chua Huong or Chua Huong festival. The town of Ben Duc
is packed with thousands of row boats used for shuttling visitors
during this time of the year.
Inside the cave are several
examples of stalagmites and stalactites. Each is given a name for
their purported features. here are Cay Gao - Rice Stick, Cay Vang -
Golden stick, Nui Co - the maiden and Nui Cau - the youth. Nui Co
and Nui Cau supposedly look like the heads of young children. It is
believed that couples who wish for children often pay homage to
Huong Tich grotto and to especially visit Nui Co and Nui Cau to
pray for their first born. These formations are trademarks of a
type of cave called solutional caves, found mostly in
limestone.
Limestone Cave
Formations
Limestone caves begin their lives
as bedding-planes, faults or joints in the rock which in this case
is limestone. Groundwater begins to seep through these cracks and
the dissolves the surrounding rock with the water's natural acids.
Over many years or geological epochs, these small irregularities in
the rock expand and become caves.
Stalactites and stalagmites are
travertine deposits in limestone caves formed by the evaporation
water that contains calcium carbonate and seeps from the ceiling of
the cave. Stalactites are attached to the ceiling of the cave, are
usually long and thin and have a hollow core. Water travels down
the hollow core and drips from the bottom. Stalagmites rise from
the floor and are commonly found under stalactites. Stalagmites are
usually short and thick compared to their stalactites brothers.
Sometimes these formations join and create a column.
Vietnam
Geography
Vietnam is a long, thin, 'S' shaped
country considered to have 3 distinct areas. The north, consisting
of alpine peaks, the Red River Delta and fertile plains; the
central area, distinguish by rich volcanic plateaus and fantastic
beaches; and the south has the Mekong River Delta and thousands of
archipelagic islands.
There
are several geographic regions in Vietnam. These regions range from
soggy plains to jagged mountains. The highest point in Vietnam,
located in the Northern Highlands, is Fan Si Pan Mountain whose top
is 3,143 meters (10,300 feet). These mountains are an offshoot of
the Himalayas. Vietnam’s capital, Hanoi, and is located in
the the Tonkin Lowland which includes the Red River Delta. Huong
Tich Grotto lies at the edge of this region near the Annam
Cordillera.
The
Annam Cordillera is a long mountain range that forms much of the
Laos-Vietnam border. The southern part of this range is a high
plateau where the north typified by rugged mountain peaks. From
east of the Annam Cordillera to the sea is a long, thin strip
called the Coastal Plain. The plain is narrow and sometimes
disappears in the southern areas of this region and widens to about
60 miles in the north. The last region is the Southern Lowland.
This region consists of the Mekong Delta, archipelagic islands, and
Vietnam’s largest city, Ho Chi Minh or
Siagon.
| Definitions
from Answers.com |
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Grotto
A grotto is any type of cave that
is fairly small.
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Bedding
plane
Any of the division planes which separate the
individual strata or beds in sedimentary or stratified
rock. |
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Fault
A fracture in the continuity of a rock formation
caused by a shifting or dislodging of the earth's crust, in which
adjacent surfaces are displaced relative to one another and
parallel to the plane of fracture. Also called
shift. |
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Joint
A fracture in rock where there has been no lateral
movement in the plane of the fracture (up, down or sideways) of one
side relative to the other. |
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Travertine
A light-colored porous calcite, CaCO3, deposited
from solution in ground or surface waters and forming, among other
deposits, stalactites and stalagmites. |
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Himalayas
A mountain system of south-central Asia extending
about 2,414 km (1,500 mi) through Kashmir, northern India, southern
Xizang (Tibet), Nepal, Sikkim, and Bhutan. The Himalayas include
nine of the world's ten highest peaks, including Mount
Everest. |
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Plateau
An elevated, comparatively level expanse of land; a
tableland. |
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Delta
A landform that is created at the mouth of a river
where that river flows into an ocean, sea, estuary, lake,
reservoir, flat arid area, or another river. Deltas are formed from
the deposition of the sediment carried by the river as the flow
leaves the mouth of the river. Over long periods of time, this
deposition builds the characteristic geographic pattern of a river
delta.
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Archipelagic Islands,
Archipelago
A chain or cluster of
islands that are formed tectonically. |