Stalactites

I don't have to go down in a cave to see stalactites.

I am sitting in the house watching icicles drip. A drop of water swells on the tip - then SPLAT! it drops on the snow below.

Just like water dripping through the rock of a cave and running down a stalactite.
The icicles are not getting shorter.

They are getting longer and fatter.

Just like a stalactite grows a little with every drip.

When the drips hit something on the way down, new icicles are forming.

At the bottom bits of ice are growing up like stalagmites.

(The 'mites go up and the 'tites go down)

In a rock cave it takes ages and ages for a stalactite or a stalgmite to grow.

The ice ones grow very quickly...drip...drip...drip.