Joint 56th Annual North-Central/ 71st Annual Southeastern Section Meeting - 2022

Paper No. 5-3
Presentation Time: 8:35 AM

NEAR SURFACE GEOPHYSICAL INVESTIGATION OF KARST FEATURES IN STONE COUNTY MISSOURI


WORMINGTON, Donald1, MICKUS, Kevin1 and GOUZIE, Douglas2, (1)Geology, Missouri State University, Springfield, MO 65897, (2)Department of Geography, Geology, and Planning, Missouri State University, 901 S. National, Springfield, MO 65897

Stone county in Southwest Missouri is covered in carbonate rocks cut by mainly northwest trending faults. The carbonates in this area lend themselves readily to the formation of caves, sink holes, and other karst features. Near surface geophysical methods such as resistivity and seismic readings have proven to be useful in the discovery and exploration of these karst features.

In order to investigate a known cave system and it related features in stone county two-dimensional electrical resistivity profiles have been collected using the dipole-dipole and Schlumberger arrays. The data has been modeled using a robust two-dimensional inversion method where the inversion parameters have been varied to determine the statistically most reasonable model. The data was collected with electrodes spaced from 1 to 3 meters apart. Passive and active Seismic surveys have been taken as well to constrain the findings. The investigation has been used in determining the extent of the cave system in Stone county.