h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A657597

There are many other areas of cave development to cover, particularly
i) The effect of changing topography and surface glacial processes on the evolution of caves, particularly due to the rise or fall of the water table and the exposure of new lower resurgences, and infilling of glacial debris,
ii) The formation of new routes underground and the development of fossil passageways

but I think these may be better covered in a follow-up article?

I'm hoping to write other related articles (eg 'What is caving'), and so I'm trying to avoid writing not quite enough detail in this article to be able to refer back to from elsewhere. For example, trying to give an idea of the basic classes of passage shapes will help when describing means and methods of progression.

There is an existing article - http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A448292 - which touches on cave development, but in rather less detail.

not much to add from my side as you're obviosly an expert there; hence I see no use in (nor the need for) picking holes here

On the topic of style, does anyone think I should be less circumspect, and regarding my descriptions (difficult without diagrams), is there any particular piece that anyone is having problems visualising?

Just had a quick peek and was a bit put off by the large blocks of text, which make reading more difficult.

I'd like to suggest that you break the text into more readable blocks by using and if you're using GuideML.

I'll have a more detailed look a bit later.

Cheers, I'll try that, probably tomorrow. (and maybe emphasise a few more words as well to fit with a future dictionary of terms)

I've just thought I really should do a minor rearrangement. Will post when it's done.

I'd change the title. "Development" implieds a guiding force. I pictured cavemen carving holes when I saw the entry. Perhaps "Cave Formation"?

Unfortunately, in the context of caves, 'formation' is a bit of a funny word. 'Formations' is the word generally used to cover calcite adornments like stalactites, stalagmatites, helectites, gour pools, flowstone and similar features of caves.

"A cave formation" (or "cave formations"), and "cave formation" are close verbally, but quite distinct in meaning. That said, it's difficult for me to know what people who don't have the same interpretation may make of the title.

I guess 'evolution' is another possibility, and commonly used in discussions of cave generation, but that could end up winding up some other people. Strictly, there are guiding forces, but they are simple physical forces, rather than intelligent designing ones.

However, if the title is a problem, I'm happy to try and modify it. Does anyone else have an opinion?

"Cave Genesis"? But that might rile the other people.

Can't please everyone...

the formation of caves?
the creation of caves?
caves?
where caves come from?




need caffine........


FABT

'How caves are formed' ??

Azara

Congratulations!

Your entry has been recommended and accepted by the Powers That Be. A copy of it will go out to a SubEd for some polishing, and after that, the in-house team are going to do some more of that plus including BBC links etc, etc. You can track the ways of the entry by keeping an eye on the <./>comingup</.> page.

Have some

Excellent! Now if we could just think of a title...

Woohoo - my first official entry.

I was dithering over whether to chop the roof collapse section off, as it's kind of a later developmental effect, but I guess I have to stop the article somewhere, and I guess many of the later and more peculiar processes, such as the paragenesis of phreatic passages, and the development of fossil passages are often more dependent on external events, whereas roof collapse is mainly water-driven, and does round off the article in terms of the most common major cave passage shapes.

If/when I write later articles, is it possible to pass minor mods to the subeds to help link this article to link it to the newer ones?

(If any sub-eds want any clarifications, I'm online quite regularly at the moment.)

I think its a very good thing you'll be online! I may shout if I get stuck in the editing!

Congrats Potholer,

I looked at this in the WW a few months back and I remember liking it then. I haven't seen the latest version, but there wasn't much to do. I will have a gander when I get time.

In the mean-time, your post above provides two intriguing titles for upcoming entries: 'The paragenesis of phreatic passages' and 'The development of fossil passages'.

Look forward to hearing what these unfathomable subjects can possibly be all about!

Seeya
Spiff

Thanks, Spiff.

I'm working on the next entry now. It looks like I'll need to do a bit of backtracking to explain some of the newer stuff (a concrete filled swimming pool filled with a tangle of hosepipe may make an appearance somewhere).

Fossil pasages are fairly easy to explain, as is paragenesis, though the latter is both uncommon and possibly a little counterintuitive, and both should make an apperance in the next installment.

I did write quite a bit in GuidePost 0.6 last night, but didn't realise there wasn't a 'query for saving modified text when quitting' function, so I'll have to rewrite that section.

I'm starting to think I should have called this entry '*Basic* cave development', giving "*Advanced*..." as the title for the next one, and sidestepping the problems of strict chronology. Maybe I should drop a line to my sub-ed.?

*coughs loudly*

If you want to shout, drop it here... I've already got to this thread!

OK then - I think 'Basic Cave Development' may be rather better than 'Early...' as the title, since the follow-up article is likely to be going over similar ground in places, but delving into certain aspects in more detail than could be covered in this article without making it more confusing.

First, can I just apologise hugely for not getting this article back sooner! I'd got three-quarters of the way through, then abandoned it for final year revision. But, at last, it has been done! Or at least, I hope you dont disagree too much with the changes I have made!

Can you go take a look at the final article at A688296, and see what you think of it? I'll send it off to the eds on Thursday (today being Tuesday), so it can finish being looked at in-house. Then hopefully, it wont be too much longer till you can see the final product on the front page!

Again, I'm so sorry that its take this long. It is a great article Potholer, and I hope my RL delays hasnt caused you to stop writing (though from your page it doesnt seem to have ).

FC