USING ELECTRICAL RESISTIVITY AS A TOOL TO STUDY KARST CAVE SYSTEMS IN MISSOURI

Southwestern Missouri, like many other areas in the United States, has multiple geologic units which foster a karst landscape. In the Ozarks karst region, knowledge about cave systems and interconnections amongst the systems is important in understanding both the hydrogeology of groundwater flow and the engineering geology of sinkholes and similar geomorphic features.

Recent graduate student work (Wormington, 2022) in coordination with a local landowner [with a cave underneath his property] has provided a baseline dataset consisting primarily of electrical resistivity profiles. These electrical resistivity profiles are being reviewed in conjunction with known cave maps and continuing exploration of the project cave. This effort should provide deeper understanding to evaluate the usefulness of geophysical methods for detecting and interpreting karst cave passage connections. Construction of fence diagrams and correlation with cave mapping by the landowner was investigated to predict potential future cave passage locations.