Can Stalactites Form Underwater?

In recent years, researchers have identified a small group of stalactites that appear to have calcified underwater instead of in a dry cave. The "Hells Bells" in the El Zapote cave near Puerto Morelos on the Yucatán Peninsula are just such formations.

How do stalagmites form underwater?

Speleothems actually form because of water. Rainwater seeps through cracks in the rock. ... If the water that drops to the floor of the cave still has some dissolved calcite in it, it can deposit more dissolved calcite there, forming a stalagmite. Speleothems form at varying rates as calcite crystals build up.

Can a stalagmite form without an stalactite above it?

Stalagmites have thicker proportions and grow up on the bottom of a cavern from the same drip-water source, the mineral from which is deposited after the water droplet falls across the open space in the rock. Not every stalactite has a complementary stalagmite, and many of the latter may have no stalactite above them.