Karstbase Bibliography Database

Entrances are connections between an underlying cave passage and the surface above. Most cave entrances are statistical accidents where the breakthrough to the surface is caused by collapse, by valley deepening, or by human activities such as road cuts, quarries, and other excavations. The number of caves with a certain number of entrances decreases rapidly with the number of entrances, leading to the prediction of a large number of caves that have no entrances. Entrances range in size over several orders of magnitude but there is no relationship between the size of the entrance and the size of the cave.