FAULT CONTROL OF GROUNDWATER FLOW, PANEL CAVE, VA

Panel Cave sits within Natural Tunnel State Park, Virginia, near Stock Creek, roughly 550 meters downstream of the South Portal of Natural Tunnel, in Cambro-Ordovician carbonates of the Knox Group. The Glenita thrust fault, formed during the Alleghenian Orogeny, is exposed within Natural Tunnel and in a borrow pit downstream. Panel Cave is located in Purchase Ridge, located to the east of Stock Creek in this area. Even in times of drought, when Stock Creek downhill from the cave was dry, a stream continued to flow in the cave. From this, it may be inferred that water from the cave is not entering Stock Creek directly downhill from the cave. Dye tracing was done to determine where water from the cave entered Stock Creek. Results support the hypothesis that water is flowing along the Glenita thrust fault eventually entering Stock Creek approximately 1500 meters downstream.