Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

From Sink To Resurgence: The Buffering Capacity Of A Cave System In The Tongass National Forest, Usa, Chris Groves, Melissa Hendrikson

Earth, Environmental, and Atmospheric Sciences Faculty Publications

The Tongass National Forest of Southeast Alaska, USA, provides a unique environment for monitoring the impact of the cave system on water quality and biological productivity. The accretionary terrane setting of the area has developed into a complex and heterogeneous geologic landscape which includes numerous blocks of limestone with intense karstification. During the Wisconsian glaciation, there were areas of compacted glacial sediments and silts deposited over the bedrock. Muskeg peatlands developed over these poorly drained areas. The dominant plants of the muskeg ecosystem are Sphagnum mosses, whose decomposition leads to highly acidic waters with pH as low as 2.4. These …

Lineament Mapping For Groundwater Exploration Using Remotely Sensed Imagery In A Karst Terrain : Rio Tanama And Rio De Arecibo Basins In The Northern Karst Of Puerto Rico, Carla A. Alonso-Contes

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Remote sensing and advanced digital image processing techniques were developed and tested for delineating karst features important for the subterranean hydrology in the Tanamá River and Rio Grande de Arecibo catchments located in the North Coast Tertiary Basin of Puerto Rico, where groundwater contributes to base flow for surface water bodies which in itself is the main supply of drinking water. This aquifer region is a karst platform of carbonate rocks and clastic beds, thought to comprise a confined aquifer beneath and an unconfined aquifer. Products derived from ASTER, Landsat (ETM+ and TM), a NED DEM (30 m), and a …

Fate Of Stable Isotope Label During Predation Of 15N-Tagged Wild-Type Escherichia Coli By Protozoa, Ashley M. Barton

University of Kentucky Master's Theses

Currently, bacterial movement in karst aquifers is not well understood. Use of stable isotopes to label non-pathogenic Escherichia coli as a particulate groundwater tracer in karst systems has been examined in previous studies. Loss of the stable isotope signal is anticipated in traces greater than 500 m in length. Potential loss of ¹⁵N due to predation by protozoa was examined. Filter-sterilized water from Royal Spring in Georgetown, Kentucky, was inoculated with a mixture of either Tetrahymena pyriformis or Colpoda steinii and ¹⁵N-enriched E. coli and stored in the dark at 14°C. Samples were analyzed for their nitrogen isotope …

A Comparative Integrated Geophysical Study Of Horseshoe Chimney Cave, Colorado Bend State Park, Texas, Wesley A. Brown, Kevin W. Stafford, Melinda G. Shaw-Faulkner, Andy Grubbs

Faculty Publications

An integrated geophysical study was performed over a known cave in Colorado Bend State Park (CBSP), Texas, where shallow karst features are common within the Ellenberger Limestone. Geophysical survey such as microgravity, ground penetrating radar (GPR), direct current (DC) resistivity, capacitively coupled (CC) resistivity, induced polarization (IP) and ground conductivity (GC) measurements were performed in an effort to distinguish which geophysical method worked most effectively and efficiently in detecting the presence of subsurface voids, caves and collapsed features. Horseshoe Chimney Cave (HCC), which is part of a larger network of cave systems, provides a good control environment for this research. …

Minerogenetic Mechanisms Occurring In The Cave Environment: An Overview, Bogdan P. Onac, Paolo Forti

International Journal of Speleology

Perhaps man’s first motivation to explore caves, beyond using them as shelter, was the search for substances that were not available elsewhere: most of them were minerals. However, for a long time it was believed that the cave environment was not very interesting from the mineralogical point of view. This was due to the fact that most cave deposits are normally composed of a single compound: calcium carbonate. Therefore, the systematic study of cave mineralogy is of only recent origin. However, although only a limited number of natural cavities have been investigated in detail, about 350 cave minerals have already …

The Subterranean Fauna Of A Biodiversity Hotspot Region - Portugal: An Overview And Its Conservation, Ana Sofia P.S. Reboleira, Paulo A.V. Borges, Fernando Gonçalves, Artur R.M. Serrano, Pedro Oromí

International Journal of Speleology

An overview of the obligate hypogean fauna in Portugal (including Azores and Madeira archipelagos) is provided, with a list of obligated cave-dwelling species and subspecies, and a general perspective about its conservation. All the available literature on subterranean Biology of Portugal since the first written record in 1870 until today has been revised. A total of 43 troglobiont and 67 stygobiont species and subspecies from 12 orders have been described so far in these areas, included in the so-called Mediterranean hotspot of biodiversity. The subterranean fauna in Portugal has been considered moderately poor with some endemic relicts and it remains …

A Comparative Integrated Geophysical Study Of Horseshoe Chimney Cave, Colorado Bend State Park, Texas, Wesley A. Brown, Kevin W. Stafford, Mindy Shaw-Faulkner, Andy Grubbs

International Journal of Speleology

An integrated geophysical study was performed over a known cave in Colorado Bend State Park (CBSP), Texas, where shallow karst features are common within the Ellenberger Limestone. Geophysical survey such as microgravity, ground penetrating radar (GPR), direct current (DC) resistivity, capacitively coupled (CC) resistivity, induced polarization (IP) and ground conductivity (GC) measurements were performed in an effort to distinguish which geophysical method worked most effectively and efficiently in detecting the presence of subsurface voids, caves and collapsed features. Horseshoe Chimney Cave (HCC), which is part of a larger network of cave systems, provides a good control environment for this research. …

Proceedings Of The 2011 International Conference On Karst Hydrogeology And Ecosystems, Jason Samuel Polk, Leslie A. North

Environmental Sustainability Books

Jointly sponsored by the Hoffman Environmental Research Institute, the National Cave & Karst Research Institute, and the International Association of Hydrogeologists, the 2011 International Conference on Karst Hydrogeology and Ecosystems was held at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, Kentucy on 8-10 June 2011. Topics include karst geomorphology, engineering and modeling, isotope geochemistry, and cultural and educational aspects of karst environments.

Geology Of Cumberland Gap National Historical Park, Matthew M. Crawford, Hanna Hunsberger

Map and Chart--KGS

Cumberland Gap National Historical Park is located in parts of Kentucky, Virginia, and Tennessee. The park was authorized by President Franklin Roosevelt on June 11, 1940, and is now the largest historical park in the National Park System. It contains 24,000 acres along Cumberland Mountain near Ewing, Va., proceeding southwest toward Fern Lake in Tennessee, a distance of approximately 20 miles. The average width of the park is only 1.6 miles.

The park hosts a distinctive range of geologic processes and features. Unique structural geology, caves and karst, surface and groundwater erosion, and mass wasting are just a few of …

Identifying The Stream Erosion Potential Of Cave Levels In Carter Cave State Resort Park, Kentucky, Usa, Eric Peterson, Brianne Jacoby, Toby Dogwiler

Eric Wade Peterson

Cave levels, passages found at similar elevations and formed during the same constant stream base level event, reveal information about paleoclimates and karst geomorphology. The investigation presented here examines how Stream Power Index (SPI) relates to cave levels. The study area, Carter Caves State Resort Park (CCSRP), is a fluviokarst system in northeastern Kentucky containing multiple cave levels. SPI deter-mines the erosive power overland flow based on the assumption that flow accumulation and slope are proportional to potential for sediment entrainment. Part of this digital terrain analysis requires the creation of a flow accumulation raster from a digital elevation model …

Estimating The Timing Of Cave Level Development With Gis, Brianne Jacoby, Eric Peterson, Toby Dogwiler, John Kostelnicj

Eric Wade Peterson

Identifying cave levels provides insight into cave development and climatic changes that have affected a karst system over time. Cosmogenic dating has been used to interpret levels in Mammoth Cave and the Cumberland Plateau. This absolute dating technique has proven successful in determining cave paleoclimates and regional geomorphic history, but is expensive. The study presented here is a preliminary method to cosmogenic dating that can outline a region’s speleogenesis using a Geographic Information System (GIS) and published denudation rates. The Carter Cave system in northeastern Kentucky is within the karst landscape found along the western edge of the Appalachians and …

Temporal Stability Of Cave Sediments, Kevin Hughes, Eric Wade Peterson

Eric Wade Peterson