UNCOVERING THE SPELEOGENESIS OF CARTER CAVES, KENTUCKY USING GIS

Cave passages that are found at similar elevations are grouped together and called “levels”. Current understanding is that passages within a level were formed by the same event, often controlled by static base level or stratigraphy. Cave levels provide insight into cave development and climatic changes. 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 but is expensive. Finding a relative dating method that can outline a region’s speleogenesis while maintaining low costs is needed to determine what regions would benefit the most from sediment dating. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) can be used as a preliminary procedure to identify cave levels and determine the timing of level development. This method is being applied to the Carter Cave system in eastern Kentucky. Cave entrance and exit elevations along stream valleys were found by extracting elevation values from a 10 x 10 meter Digital Elevation Model (DEM). Using a histogram generated from the frequency of cave elevations and a natural breaks classifier, the number and elevation of cave levels were determined. An argument can be made for either four or five cave levels in the Carter Cave system; however, studies identified four levels in both Mammoth Cave and the Cumberland Plateau. The volume of material lost within each level was calculated using the 3D Analyst tool in ArcMap 9.3. Future work will calculate the relative time required to form each level using the volume calculations along with denudation rates established in the current literature. In finding a reasonable denudation rate, a conclusion can be made about the number of levels in the Carter Cave system. This work improves the understanding the Carter Cave system evolution and contributes a methodology that can be used to ascertain an erosion history of karst systems.