Caves under rivers

[jason]

So I posted this to the NSS forum a few weeks back and got PM'd a few responses that were fairly unexpected - so I figured I'd cross-post here.... I've just completed a draft of a research paper about how caves form under rivers in Florida. Many of you may be unaware of it, but cave systems with springs on both sides of rivers and cave passages that extend beneath rivers is, from the perspective of a hydrologist, very weird. These types of caves are, however, fairly common in Florida. I know of most of the sites in the Suwannee River Basin that fit this description and am now interested in figuring out how many other karst areas also have caves that extend beneath permanent rivers. Feel free to PM me if you're not interested in making these areas public.

[SuPrBuGmAn]

Under the spring run, or the rivers specifically?


There are lots and lots... I'd imagine every river with karst areas and cave will have this occurrance.

[jason]

Under the spring run, or the rivers specifically?


There are lots and lots... I'd imagine every river with karst areas and cave will have this occurrance.

Actually, it's quite uncommon. Caves that discharge to springs that are located on both sides of a river, such as Devil's, are even more rare. Florida cave divers are probably the only cavers in the world that would not be surprised to map a cave and find that it went under a river....

[jlillest]

Jason,

Did you get the info on the system in the Little Lime next door to the Omega System in Wise Co. VA?

B. Schwartz would probably be delighted to speak to you about this, though you've probably already got his papers and speak to him at GSA etc.

-Jon

[jason]

Jason,

Did you get the info on the system in the Little Lime next door to the Omega System in Wise Co. VA?

B. Schwartz would probably be delighted to speak to you about this, though you've probably already got his papers and speak to him at GSA etc.


-Jon

I got the paper, cited it and talked to Benjamin. He lives just about a half hour or so down the road from me. Thanks for pointing me to that - i wouldn't have found it otherwise.

[Webmaster]

Isn't there an air filled passage in Mammoth that goes under the Green River?

Nick Crawford gave a talk last night and mentioned a trace they did that went under the Stones River here in Murfreesboro. I doubt it went through anything more than fracture and bedding plane flow though.

[jason]

I'm unaware of any dry passage under the Green River. I'll have to shoot Nick an email and ask him about the Stones River trace. Do you know if the trace was quantitative or just to a bug?

[Scott]

Spring creek in WV has several occurrences of this. Check out the WVSS bulletin 12 and Monograph #2. If you are in WV I could point you in the direction o some WVACS members you could talk to. Balfour knows a lot about that area.

Scott