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Icicle bottom Icicle top

In caves, stalactites form when mineral-rich water drips down from the ceiling. A stalagmite is an upward-growing mound of mineral deposits that have precipitated from water dripping from above onto the floor of a cave. When they meet and join they are called a pillar or column, which can take hundreds of thousands of years. We can see a sped-up version of the process in the winter when icicles form from water dripping off a roof. Sometimes they can grow as tall as the height of the building reaching all the way to the ground, as in this photo. This icicle, seen today on a house in Pinedale, is a little over seven feet long, 4 inches thick at the top and an inch thick where it joins the ice mound on the ground.