Jasper Blue Spring (TN) 3JUN12

[rchrds]

Well, as reported, the visibility was not that good in the main passage (4-5 feet) but the dome room was very nice- which is a little strange. Here is a little video showing the sandstone layer and the side passage that leads to the surface sink with the bone pile (sticks) at the entrance, and finally the crayfish victory gardens.

Shot with a GoPro Hero2, 21W Light Monkey HID in my hand, set to wide, a 35W video light mounted too close to the camera, and Ben Martinez's primary light is the laser beam.

If you are wondering what I am doing in the smaller passage entrance, I am taking water samples for the turbidity meter.



Jason Richards
NSS 41539

[cloudboy55]

Decent visibility. Thanks for sharing.

Cloudboy55

[mwenner]

Well done you guys. Perfect form, as always, and it's nice to see nothing coming down off the ceiling. Gotta love closed circuit! What a cave!

[gasdiver]

What is the geology of the cave? Was it dry once?

[Webmaster]

Nope. It's on the western side of the Sequatchie valley, right along the overthrust.

The cherty layer you see forming a ledge he swims past you descend through near the entrance also. It's "probably" an upper member of the Fort Payne.

Most of the cave is below that and much is formed in something that is weathering out to just pure crap clay. It looks solid, but the line tends to cut right through it and it will crumble in your hand. This could be lower Ft. Payne - upper Chattanooga, although with the fault there it's entirely possible it is something else.

[FW]

I see a lot of leaves on the floor. Is there an entrance in/near the dome room? I bet it was "fun" swimming back through all that percolation.

[rchrds]

Yes, the line in the dome room leads to a smaller sidemount passage which goes off towards a surface sink about 300 feet horizontally and 50 feet vertically away from the end of the line. That is where all of the surface debris is coming from. There is no surface debris after this point in the cave. The percolation isn't really that bad. Much better than the visibility in the upstream right now.

[crawford]

Very cool. Thanks for that.

[rchrds]

Here is a second video, this shows the same layer visible on the ceiling of the first video, only this time, we have to go down below it.



Jason

[Ben M]

Good stuff, Jason. It's really a good looking cave. If you get about 5-10 more ft of visibility let me know and I'll come back ready to do some work....

Here's an image I took with my phone.