INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON KARST HYDROGEOLOGY AND ECOSYSTEMS

Geomorphology of the Mammoth Cave Karst

Thursday, June 5, 2003

Leader: Dr. Chris Groves

Co‑leaders: Joe Meiman

Dr. Ralph Ewers

Dr. Art Palmer

Dr. Will White

Dr. Darryl Granger

Participants: 120

Duration: 8:00 a.m.‑ 6:00 p.m.

Level of Difficulty and Required Equipment:

Moderate to strenuous walking (3 km) over steep tourist trails

Route and objectives:

Surface tour; the group will participate in an abbreviated version of the "Classic" tour of the Turnhole Bend Spring Groundwater basin. Stops will include: Little Sinking Creek, Park Mammoth overlook, and Cedar Sink. If we exit the Mammoth Cave with time remaining, we plan to visit Echo River Spring. Permission from all landowners will be secured prior to the trip. The group will stop for lunch at the Cave Research Foundation’s Hamilton Valley facility.

Subsurface tour; the group will assemble at the Historic Entrance at approximately 2:30 p.m. (after the scheduled 2:30 Historic Tour) and traverse the Historic Tour Route. We will see to it that our group does not interfere with scheduled cave tours. Along this route discussions will be made regarding general speleogensis. Excellent examples of bedding plane anastamoses can be observed along the wall of the Rotunda. A classic downcut canyon, with breakdown‑modified walls can be seen through Broadway. A short excursion up Main Cave to the “TB huts” will be made if time allows. Once under Giant's Coffin, passages are smaller and more numerous, reflecting a period when the Green River was rapidly downcutting, and when the number of surface water inputs was increasing with dissection of the Mammoth Cave Plateau. The group will cross Sidesaddle and Bottomless pits, which are examples of the many vertical shafts draining the capped ridgetops. At the Dead Sea and River Styx, the group will see a base level stream of Mammoth Cave. Excellent examples of large scallops, caused by slow‑moving water, can be found in River Hall. The tour will conclude through the phreatic Sparks Avenue, up Mammoth Dome, and out Little Bat Avenue at approximately 5:30 p.m.