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Geolens

Case study US

Mammoth Cave

Kentucky

Mammoth Cave developed as water dissolved limestone and enlarged underground routes. Its passages provide a comparison with karst drainage in the Yorkshire Dales.

Visitors and a park ranger stand in the broad limestone Broadway passage of Mammoth Cave, Kentucky.
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Broadway passage, Mammoth Cave, Kentucky. Groundwater dissolution enlarged fractures in limestone into a large cave system.
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Location: 37.19°, -86.10°

Water containing dissolved carbon dioxide reacts with limestone and can enlarge fractures into passages over long periods. Cave levels and their relation to rivers help reconstruct changes in drainage and base level.

Use the karst model to follow water from infiltration to an underground channel and spring. Contrast dissolution of limestone with weathering in less soluble rock, and avoid assuming that every underground passage is visible from the surface.

Open this state in the lab

Exam-style question

Why do sinkholes and caves cluster on carbonate rocks rather than on granite?

Teacher hint: Explain how weakly acidic water dissolves calcite along fractures. Other rocks, including granite, do not develop by the same carbonate-dissolution process.

Process labs

Karst

Sources

  • NPS / USGS Mammoth Cave