DETERMINATION OF THE PRESENT DAY HYDROLOGICAL CONNECTION BETWEEN BOX CANYON AND TYGART'S CREEK BY THE EXAMINATION OF THE HYDROLOGY AND HYDROCHEMISTRY OF THE CASCADE CAVE DRAINAGE BASIN

This study will take place in Carter Caves State park, Carter County, Kentucky. It will involve a preliminary delineation of the Cascade Cave drainage basin, between Tygart's Creek and James Branch. Dye tracings will be utilized in an effort to decipher what role the numerous sinkholes and the caves have in this process. Examination of groundwater flow, and chemical composition, through this karst aquifer will also yield important information that can be used to study the formation of paleoflow routes that are now abandoned cave conduits.Additional studies will be done here to determine if the sediments found in the upper-level conduits, can be correlated to the down-cutting of Tygart's Creek, and thus to the Pleistocene-Pliocene incision of the Ohio River.