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<law><site_title>Virginia Decoded</site_title><site_url>https://vacode.org</site_url><law_id>81377</law_id><section_number>10.1-1000</section_number><catch_line>Definitions</catch_line><edition url="https://vacode.org/2025/" slug="2025" current="TRUE" last_updated="">2025</edition><referred_to_by><reference>10.1-104.02</reference></referred_to_by><structure><unit label="title" level="1" order_by="1" identifier="10.1">Conservation</unit><unit label="subtitle" level="2" order_by="1" identifier="I">Activities Administered by the Department of Conservation and Recreation</unit><unit label="chapter" level="3" order_by="1" identifier="10">Cave Protection Act</unit></structure><text>
						<section><p>As used in this chapter, unless the context requires a different meaning:
		&#x201C;<span class="dictionary">Board</span>&#x201D; means the Cave <span class="dictionary">Board</span>.
		&#x201C;Cave&#x201D; means any naturally occurring void, cavity, recess, or system of interconnecting passages beneath the surface of the earth or within a cliff or ledge including natural subsurface water and drainage systems, but not including any mine, tunnel, aqueduct, or other man-made excavation, which is large enough to permit a <span class="dictionary">person</span> to enter. The word &#x201C;cave&#x201D; includes or is synonymous with cavern, <span class="dictionary">sinkhole</span>, natural pit, grotto, and rock shelter.
		&#x201C;<span class="dictionary">Cave life</span>&#x201D; means any rare or endangered animal or other life form which normally occurs in, uses, visits, or inhabits any cave or subterranean water system.
		&#x201C;<span class="dictionary">Commercial cave</span>&#x201D; means any cave utilized by the <span class="dictionary">owner</span> for the purposes of exhibition to the general public as a profit or nonprofit enterprise, wherein a fee is collected for entry.
		&#x201C;<span class="dictionary">Gate</span>&#x201D; means any structure or device located to limit or prohibit access or entry to any cave.
		&#x201C;<span class="dictionary">Material</span>&#x201D; means all or any part of any archaeological, paleontological, biological, or historical item including, but not limited to, any petroglyph, pictograph, basketry, human remains, tool, beads, pottery, projectile point, remains of historical mining activity or any other occupation found in any cave.
		&#x201C;<span class="dictionary">Owner</span>&#x201D; means a <span class="dictionary">person</span> who owns title to land where a cave is located, including a <span class="dictionary">person</span> who owns title to a leasehold estate in such land, and including the Commonwealth and any of its agencies, <span class="dictionary">departments</span>, <span class="dictionary">boards</span>, bureaus, commissions, or authorities, as well as counties, municipalities, and other political subdivisions of the Commonwealth.
		&#x201C;<span class="dictionary">Person</span>&#x201D; means any individual, partnership, firm, association, trust, or corporation or other legal entity.
		&#x201C;<span class="dictionary">Sinkhole</span>&#x201D; means a closed topographic depression or basin, generally draining underground, including, but not restricted to, a doline, uvala, blind valley, or sink.
		&#x201C;<span class="dictionary">Speleogen</span>&#x201D; means an erosional feature of the cave boundary and includes or is synonymous with anastomoses, scallops, rills, flutes, spongework, and pendants.
		&#x201C;<span class="dictionary">Speleothem</span>&#x201D; means a natural mineral formation or deposit occurring in a cave. This includes or is synonymous with stalagmite, stalactite, helectite, shield, anthodite, gypsum flower and needle, angel&#x2019;s hair, soda straw, drapery, bacon, cave pearl, popcorn (coral), rimstone dam, column, palette, flowstone, et cetera. <span class="dictionary">Speleothems</span> are commonly composed of calcite, epsomite, gypsum, aragonite, celestite, and other similar minerals.</p></section></text><history>1979, c. 252, &#xA7; 10-150.12; 1988, c. 891.</history><metadata></metadata></law>
