REASSESSING THE OCCURRENCE AND DISSOLUTION OF CARBONATE IN THE CENTRAL SAVANNAH RIVER AREA OF SOUTH CAROLINA AND GEORGIA

The occurrence of carbonate material in the southeastern Atlantic Coastal Plain has been known and documented for nearly two centuries (e.g., Lyell, 1845). Modern maps prepared at the national scale (1:7,500,000) show the updip limit of carbonate (outcrop and subsurface) in the Savannah River area extending inland approximately 135 kilometers and describe the possible existence of caves up to 300 meters long and 15 meters high in this region (Davies et al., 1984; Tobin and Weary, 2004). More recently, state and local scale (1:24,000 to 1:1,100,000) maps illustrate more restricted extent of carbonate in the Savannah River area and show isolated occurrences in Aiken County, SC, and Richmond and Burke Counties, GA (Weary, 2008). These maps are excellent tools for defining broad areas that may be susceptible to development of karst, but they are not suitable for site-specific characterization or for defining the presence/absence of karst at a particular site. Recent improvements in the availability, resolution, and processing of LiDAR data in the Central Savannah River Area may help improve the identification of karst on a reconnaissance scale, before sending geologists and geomorphologists to the field to look for evidence of sinkholes, caves, and other karst features.