4/4: Soda straws
 

http://cellar.org/2002/sodastraws.jpg

You've heard of stalagmites, you've heard of stalactites. This is a relative: the soda straw. you've got a stalactite forming, right? If it happens at the right rate, crystallization can happen just along the edges of the water droplets. Then these things get produced.

(From the earth science pic of the day.)

I'm shooting for a second O-fer today as, like my image yesterday, there just isn't much to be said about this.

sorry to ruin your record....
 

...but i just thought i would add one of those gradeschool how to remember tips:

stalaCtites grow from the Ceiling
stalaGmites grow from the Ground

the usual one is that ...

Stalagmites Stand Mightily where as....
Stalactites grip Tightly to the Roof....

failing that remember it is bloody difficult to trip up and impale yourself on a stalactite...

Datalas

the one i was always told was

stalactites hang <b>tight</b> whereas
stalagmites <b>might</b> reach the ceiling one day.

I just like to say, "spelunker!"

Now, now, we shouldn't call them that, they have feelings too.

Wow, I can't believe anybody hasn't used this one yet, which I find to be MUCH easier to remember:

The mites go up, and then the tights come down. :cool:

The way I heard it
 

The mites go up, the tights go down. :)

Spelunker? No, I haven't even got her alone in a cave yet!

Re: 4/4: Soda straws
 

Out of curiosity Tony, do you remember where that came from? It looks like something out of Meramec Caverns, near St. Louis.

Re: Re: 4/4: Soda straws
 

I saw a lot of soda straws at Carlsbad Caverns, NM. (Along with other cool stuff, like 30ft stalagmites.)

Scott Hollow Cave in West Virginia

You are correct sir. Scott Hollow Cave.