Tabor's Underground caves EarthCache
Tabor's Underground caves
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Welcome to Tabor's underground caves and sinkholes.
At the posted coordinates, you will see one end of a substantial underground cave system, stretching over many miles under the homes around the area.
A local resident, whom the area is named for, was telling me that his home's water well goes through a 16ft high section of cave below his homestead.
*** PLEASE USE CAUTION IF CHILDREN ARE PRESENT ***
Limestone has a peculiar quality in that whilst pure water cannot dissolve it, rain water can because it has picked up carbon dioxide from the air and soil. This turns the limestone into calcium bicarbonate. That process of dissolving becomes in turn a process of placing calcium carbonate when the solution is deposited, either through evaporation or by impact.
The actual dissolving happens along joints. Limestone is risen by joints (vertical) and bedding planes (horizontal). One the surface the joints are widened into grikes and the blocks left are called clints.
The depositing happens inside already dissolving areas, particularly through drips and running trickles of water.
The water of course finds its way down from grikes, and some joints form sink-holes or swallow-holes. These can become vertical chimneys and horizontal galleries - caves.
There is some debate about the formation of caves. Some are just too big to be formed. So the theory is that the ground was higher and full of ground water. The water did its dissolving as it was moving around under pressure to springs. When the water table fell, the caves were left with just air in them. It is possible, of course, for the cave roof to fall in, producing rather large sink holes as the water tumbles in.
At this location, you can see how, over time, the running water from the creek bed has a worked at eroding the limestone to create this cave opening.
I have added a second waypoint for you to visit a nearby sinkhole, which as described above, is one of the results of the erosion underground in a limestone cave system.
A chemical explanation:
Cave formation begins when rainwater absorbs carbon dioxide as it falls through the atmosphere. Rain water must have carbon dioxide to become acidic. It must be acidic to chemically react to the limestone bedrock. Rainwater is absorbed by the soil into the ground. As rainwater comes through the soil it absorbs more carbon dioxide that is being produced by plants that are dead. This changes the ground water to a weaker form of carbonic acid(H2O + CO2 = H2CO3). As it travels down through the ground it comes to solid rock. When the rock is limestone or dolomite caves can form. The water reacts chemically with limestone and slowly a larger and larger space will form. This happens because the rocks are made of calcium carbonate (CaCO3). This is what you call chemical erosion. As the space becomes larger and larger the water can flow through. As it flows it erodes . Physical erosion washes away rock and sand. This is what makes a cave larger and forms an underground stream. Finally over hundreds of thousands of years or even millions of years the cave is formed.
Another cache, GC8CAE - "The Amazing Caverns of Kitt's Caves" would be another entry point to this underground area.
To log this cache, please proceed to the main coordinates and answer these two questions:
1. Is the area directly in front of the cave entrance a sinkhole or a river bed or both?
You can also post a picture of yourself at the location, but this is optional.
Enjoy the visit!
PLEASE USE CAUTION IN THE WINTER !!!
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Treasures
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