ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Cave pearl

Hey kiddo, have you ever seen a pearl before? It's a little ball that's usually found inside a shell or oyster. Now, imagine a very small, round object that's kind of like a pearl, but it's made from minerals and rocks that slowly build up over a long time. That's what we call a cave pearl!

But here's the special thing about cave pearls - they're actually formed in caves! Inside the cave, there might be a little pool or puddle of water, and if drops of water fall into it over and over, some of the minerals in those drops will stick together and form a little ball. The more drops that fall in, the bigger the ball gets!

And since it's in a dark and damp cave, it can take a very long time for these little balls to form. Some cave pearls could take hundreds or even thousands of years to grow! But once they're formed, they can be very pretty to look at - some of them have different colors or patterns, just like regular pearls.

So, that's what a cave pearl is - a small, mineral ball that's formed in a cave over a long time from falling droplets of water. Pretty cool, right?