Cave pearls in Carlsbad Cavern, New Mexico

Combining these results with previous work on cave pearls allows development of a unified model for cave-pearl formation. Required elements include 1) saturated water entering a cave (present in most caves); 2) an available detrital or autochthonous crystal to act as a nucleus (again, readily available); 3) the water must enter into a relatively flat floor in a cave or mine, either as drips from the ceiling or as water slowly flowing across the floor; 4) a shallow pool must form, generally < 3 cm but up to 6 cm deep to allow agitation of the pearls; 5) conditions in the pool must change so as to create layers; and 6) additional chemicals or particles may enter with the groundwater to feed a microbial community and/or add detrital or authigenic clays to the cave pearls.