Thermal genesis of dissolution caves in the Black Hills, South Dakota

Jewel Cave (118 km of mapped passages beneath an area of 2.7 km2) and Wind Cave (70 km beneath 1.8 km2) are, respectively, the fourth and tenth longest known cave systems and the world's foremost examples of three-dimensional, rectilinear networks of solutional passages. Other caves in the Black Hills are similar. They occur in 90–140 m of well-bedded Mississippian limestone and dolomite. Walls throughout Jewel Cave are lined with euhedral …