Mercer Caverns

{{Short description|Cave in United States of America}}

File:Mercer Caverns tour.jpg

File:Aragonite in Mercer Caverns.jpg

Mercer Caverns is a show cave located one mile north of Murphys in Calaveras County California.Fife The Endless Adventure in the California Outback (2009), p. 191 It is named after the gold prospector Walter J. Mercer who discovered the caves around 1885 and filed a claim.Mercer Caverns (Near Murphys, on Sheep Ranch Road, Calaveras County) Discovered by a gold prospector in 1885, who found no gold but did find human bones (four adults, one child, and one infant). — Mary Hill, in Geology of the Sierra Nevada: Revised Edition (2006), p. 159 The caverns have a large number of speleothems, stalactites, and stalagmites. It is formed in a marble unit known as the Calaveras Formation. It also contains a large display of aragonite frostwork.

{{cite journal|last1=Rogers|first1=Bruce|last2=Legge|first2=Charmaine|title=Mercer Caverns-History, exploration, and geology of a gold country classic|journal=California Geology|date=May–June 1995|volume=48|issue=3|pages=12–19}}

The standard tour of the cave descends 160 feet, 208 steps down and 232 up in a traverse between the natural and an artificial entrance. The cave was mapped in 1986 to a length of 3389 feet and a total depth of 192 feet. The map can be viewed on the cave's web site.