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Jewel Cave National Monument

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Jewel Cave National Monument

A Short Reader

Reading Level

	edHelper's suggested reading level:	grades 3 to 5
	Flesch-Kincaid grade level:	4.34

Vocabulary

	challenging words:		groundwater, second, underground, world, longer, several, longest, enough, through, study, near, such, entrance, also, than, visit
	content words:		South Dakota, Jewel Cave, When Jewel Cave, Jewel Cave National Monument

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Jewel Cave National Monument By Meg Leonard

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¹     The second longest cave in the world is found in South Dakota. Its name is Jewel Cave. It is a national monument. The name comes from the crystals that line the inside of the cave. The crystals are made of calcite. Calcite is a white or colorless crystalline mineral.
 
²     Jewel Cave is 144 miles long. The latest map of the cave was completed in January of 2009. Many caves are carved by underground rivers. That is not how Jewel Cave was formed. The cave was carved by acid-rich groundwater that moved slowly in circles. When Jewel Cave was first made a national monument, they didn't realize how long the cave was. People thought the crystal formations were pretty. They wanted to preserve them. In later years, the cave was explored more. They found out that it was longer than they first thought. Cavers, or people who study caves, are still measuring the length of Jewel Cave.

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