Home▸Geology & Earth Science▸Karst Topography: How Rainwater Carves Caves Out of Rock

🕳️ Karst Topography: How Rainwater Carves Caves Out of Rock

Explore how weakly acidic rainwater slowly dissolves limestone bedrock over thousands of years, creating sinkholes, disappearing streams, underground rivers, and dripstone caves.

Geology & Earth Science3DModerate60 FPS💧 Water 🌍 Earth

This simulation demonstrates how slightly acidic rainwater gradually dissolves limestone bedrock to create sinkholes, underground caves, and mineral formations over time.

🔬 What It Demonstrates

This simulation demonstrates how slightly acidic rainwater gradually dissolves limestone bedrock to create sinkholes, underground caves, and mineral formations over time.

🎮 How to Use

Adjust the rainfall acidity and simulation speed, then watch as water carves channels through the rock layer, forming sinkholes on the surface and stalactites and stalagmites underground.

💡 Did You Know?

Did you know that karst landscapes cover roughly ten to twenty percent of Earth's ice-free land, and that a single stalactite can take thousands of years to grow just a few centimeters?

⚙ Under the hood

Explore how weakly acidic rainwater slowly dissolves limestone bedrock over thousands of years, creating sinkholes, disappearing streams, underground rivers, and dripstone caves.

geologykarstcaveslimestoneerosiongroundwaterearth-sciencehydrology

3D · Three.js / WebGL renderer · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install