Dirt Cave EarthCache EarthCache
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Dirt cave is located about 50 feet from Roaring River in Jackson County. Parking is available right in front of the entrance. Please be careful with young children as they could fall if they get too rambunctious.
What is a cave?
It depends on who you ask or where you get your information from. One definition is that a cave is a natural underground void large enough for humans to enter. Some people suggest that the term 'cave' should only apply to cavities that have some part which does not receive daylight. The term cave is generally synonymous with cavern and is commonly applied to wind or water eroded rock cavities such as rock shelters. A rock shelter, also known as a rock house, is a shallow cave-like opening at the base of a bluff or cliff. Rock shelters form because a rock stratum such as sandstone that is resistant to erosion and weathering has formed a cliff or bluff, but a softer stratum, more subject to erosion and weathering, lies just below the resistant stratum, and thus undercuts the cliff. Many rock shelters are found under waterfalls.
Types of Caves
A simple classification of caves includes four main types and several other relatively less important types.
A. Solution caves are formed in carbonate and sulfate rocks such as limestone, dolomite, marble, and gypsum by the action of slowly moving ground water that dissolves the rock to form tunnels, irregular passages, and even large caverns along joints and bedding planes. Most of the caves in the world-as well as the largest-are of this type.
B. Lava caves are tunnels or tubes in lava formed when the outer surface of a lava flow cools and hardens while the molten lava within continues to flow and eventually drains out through the newly formed tube.
C. Sea caves are formed by the constant action of waves which attacks the weaker portions of rocks lining the shores of oceans and large lakes. Such caves testify to the enormous pressures exerted by waves and to the corrosive power of wave-carried sand and gravel.
D. Glacier caves are formed by melt water which excavates drainage tunnels through the ice. Of entirely different origin and not to be included in the category of glacier caves are so-called "ice caves," which usually are either solution caves or lava caves within which ice forms and persists through all or most of the year.
The bedrock in this area is mainly composed of limestone so this cave would be considered a solution cave. Caves such as this are fairly common in the state of Tennessee. One source lists 8,600 known caves in Tennessee.
To log this earthcache you must post a picture of you holding your GPS with the cave in the background and email me the answers to the following questions...
1. What are the dimensions of the opening of this cave…floor to ceiling and side to side?
2. What natural substance is covering the floor of this cave?
3. What is your opinion on how this cave was formed?
4. After reading the above text and studying the physical area, do you think this should be called a cave or a rock shelter?
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