there are some caves up here -- pennsylvania has a number of caves -same limestone formation that causes caves down your way.(same geological mountain range.)

In NYC most of the limestone layer is total eroded away. some very small out cropping still remain-- (marble hill in north bronx, Whitestone in south bronx (and the name of the bridge. some can be found in manhattan, too, (parts of roosevelt island, and in parts of harlem.)

Most of Manhattan is schist, under it is gneiss (most of the bronx is gneiss, the oldest rocks in NYC).. Queens, brooklyn (part of LI for geographic purposes) and staten island are mostly termimal moraines. (LI is made from 2, the North hills moraine, and the Ronconkama moraine, (see the tail end of the LI fish--each tail is one moraine) they cross each other in brooklyn/queens, with Bay Ridge (d'oh) being the highest point. (this is also location of Verrenzaro bridge.. the bridge crosses the place were the moraine which was acting as dam, and holding back melting flood water from glacial hudson river, broke.. water(fresh) drained out, and then sea (salt water) came in.

NY harbor is an estuary at the mouth of an (old) fjord.

i don't know the geology of the appalacians well enough to know where the limestone layers are close to surface.. (but i would expect somewher up near Nova Scotia..)

the layer with coal is close to surface (mine able) in parts of pennsylvania, but too deep in most of NY and New England, but there are coal mines again in NS canada.. the two layers seem to lie close to each other.. (you get limestone caves in the same area's there is coal mining.)

i hate (well to be honest, i am really afraid) of the dark. Not a problem most places in the world now days, but caving was always a challege.. so i don't think i have ingested as many springtails as others..

my ex had a nominal interest in spulunking, and we often stopped at small family developed caves but almost never went caving in undeveloped caves. (we did explore the old colonial iron mine just a mile or two from the town of Tuxedo NY)


my other obsession