Second, caves are storehouses of information on natural resources, human history and evolution. Therefore, many avenues of research can be pursued in caves. Recent studies indicated that caves contain valuable data that are relevant to global climate change, waste disposal, groundwater supply and contamination, petroleum recovery, and biomedical investigations. Caves also contain data that are pertinent to anthropologic, archaeologic, geologic, paleontologic, and mineralogic discoveries and resources.

Many researchers have turned to caves as natural laboratories where over eons paleoclimatic evidence has been naturally deposited and is awaiting discovery. For example, the recently discovered Lechuguilla Cave in New Mexico has excited scientists with the possibilities of gaining insight into global warming from analyses of materials found there.

Cave-dwelling organisms have specialized adaptations such as extreme longevity and enhanced sensory perceptions. The adaptations reveal much about the evolutionary responses to past environmental changes and may provide valuable clues to current climate change. Many caves act as natural traps for flora and fauna, and new species of extinct animals such as a mountain goat and a bush oxen related to the present day muskox (Ovibus moschatus) have been discovered from paleoentological excavations in caves. These discoveries add to the knowledge of paleo-fauna and are an aid to understanding changes in the global climate.

Other examples of climate information include pack rat middens in Grand Canyon caves that yielded pollen as old as 4000 years. This find was important because pollen characteristics are like records of climatic cycles. For example, researchers produced a regional paleoclimate record from samples of travertine deposits in a submerged cave system in Death Valley National Park, California. Coring carefully selected speleothems in Carlsbad Caverns, New Mexico, also provided indications of paleomagnetics and paleoclimate conditions.

Caves have always been known as repositories of archeological material. Some of the oldest evidence about the activities of human ancestors came from caves. In the caves of Arizona's Grand Canyon and in lava caves of El Malpais National Monument in New Mexico, important archeological discoveries are made every year in the form of excavations of ancient pottery, figurines made from twigs, and evidence of the use of caves for habitation.

In the Slaughter Canyon Cave in Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico, recent studies lead to the discovery of one of only a few deep cave art sites in the United States. These sites are relatively rare compared to European caves. In the Mammoth Cave area of Kentucky, anthropological studies revealed that the caves were used for thousands of years by people for shelter and for mining minerals useful as medicine.

Historic and prehistoric cultural remains in caves are extraordinarily diverse. They range from ancient torch smudges on cave ceilings to civil war age saltpeter vats used to make gun powder. In spite of this diversity, the cultural resources have common attributes: (1) they are subtle, elusive, or fragile or all three; and (2) they provide unique and valuable information about the past. Without proper documentation and research of these hidden cultural remains in deep or shallow caves, valuable and important segments of the human history would be lost for all time.