NANNING: A joint Sino-French cave exploration team has discovered a rare “cave cloud” — a special kind of natural mineral deposit within a cave — in south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, according to the Institute of Karst Geology of China Geological Survey.
The geological formation was found in the Xiniuyan Cave, in Wuxuan County, in the city of Laibin. The cave cloud covers an area of 300 square meters and is only the second such structure found in China.
It is distributed in seven pools within a cave, with each pool having the shape of a pumpkin or loaf of bread, according to the team of experts. The cave itself measures 2,754 meters long and features gentle terrain.
“This is the second spectacle of cave clouds discovered in China after Jingua Cave in Danzhai County, Guizhou Province,” said Zhang Yuanhai, a senior engineer with the institute. “The formation conditions of cave clouds are very harsh, and the surrounding rock of the cave is mostly dolomite, and karst caves formed by dolomite are not common.”
