The term "cave" refers to a
natural opening, usually in rocks, that is large enough for human
entry.
From Tahlequah Northeast to the Missouri line
you are on what is called the Boone Formation. The Boone formation
is made up of an alternating series of limestones and cherts,
approximately 300 to 350 feet in thickness where fully developed.
It forms the surface rock over by far the largest part of the area
of Mississippian rocks. At the base of the formation there is
always present a limestone member, consisting at the top of a heavy
ledge of coarsely crystalline encrinital limestone, or marble,
which is usually 10 to 15 feet in thickness. This bed is separated
by several feet of shaly limestone from a lower ledge of flaggy
limestone, locally rather cherty and in many places irregularly
bedded, which lies upon the Chattanooga shale. The upper ledge
usually outcrops as a smooth, wall-like bluff, from which large
blocks, the full thickness of the ledge, break away. It has been
correlated with the St. Joe limestone member in the Tahlequah and
Fayetteville folios. This limestone is normally overlain by a
series of dark limestones and cherts from 50 to 80 feet thick.
Above these, to the top of the formation, are lighter colored
cherts and limestones, with one or more massive ledges of limestone
10 to 20 feet in thickness.
Types of
Caves
A simple
classification of caves includes four main types and several other
relatively less important types.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
To log this earthcache
please email the following information to the cache
owner:
- Use the information listed
above to determine which kind of cave this is.
- Provide the approximate roof
height at the tallest point in the bigger room of the
cave.
- How high and wide is the
opening to the cave. Again, approximate will do.
- Take a picture of yourself or
your group in or at the cave and post it to your
log.
(Please include name of cache with your
email)
(If you are physically
involved, and cannot make the trek to the cave, there is parking
very near. Even in a wheel chair you can see the opening of the
cave. Take your picture with the cave in the background and
determine the type of cave. If others in the party are able to get
the other information please send it
also.)
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