Scottsville Public Spring EarthCache

Welcome to Allen County

Near the origins of Scottsville, Kentucky

History

Allen County was formed in April 1815. Scottsville was named for Gen. Charles Scott, 4th governor of Ky. In 1816, location was chosen for county seat because of abundant water supply from this spring. The county bought 100 acres, which were laid off in lots and sold to build a courthouse.

Early history records the fact that the present site for the county seat was chosen "because of the large spring there, which early settlers had found never diminished its flow of water even in the driest season of the year".

Kentucky is one of the most famous karst areas in the world. Much of the state's beautiful scenery and interesting spots are the result of development of karst landscape. The karst topography of Kentucky is mostly on limestone, but also some dolostone.

The outcrop area of the limestone bedrock in Kentucky has been used to estimate the percentage of karst terrain or topography in the state. About 55 percent of Kentucky is underlain by rocks that could develop karst terrain, given enough time. About 38 percent of the state has at least some karst development recognizable on topographic maps, and 25 percent of the state is known to have well-developed karst features.

This particular region of the state is filled with many caves and springs. One of the most significant cave systems in the United States, Mammoth Cave is located about 30 miles due north of Scottsville.

This Karst topography is created by rainwater which dissolves and widens cracks in the limestone bedrock. This creates land forms such as shafts, tunnels, caves, and sinkholes. Groundwater seeps into and through these land forms. Rainwater soaking into the ground at higher elevations have leeched into the ground and into the limestone until they have reached a harder non- permeable layer of bedrock and have surfaced here to form the spring.

Karst systems are one of the greatest suppliers of aquifers, with nearly 25% of the drinking water (in the United States) flowing through a karst. The rapid recharge of the subterranean aquifers does mean that little filtration may occur with certain water sources.

Springs typically come in three types, seepage, fractured and tubular.

* Seepage or filtration spring. The term seep refers to springs with small flow rates in which the source water has filtered into permeable earth.

* Fracture springs, discharge from faults, joints, or fissures in the earth, in which springs have followed a natural course of voids or weaknesses in the bedrock.

* Tubular springs are essentially water dissolved and created underground channels, basically cave systems.

****There is no reason to bother anything to get the answers to log this earthcache. All information should be obtainable within the text or at the location of the spring. ****

Logging Requirements

As part of the education experience, it is required that you be able to answer some questions about your visit.

1. Approximately what percent of Kentucky is underlain by rocks that could develop karst terrain?

2. Approximate the flow rate of the spring. What is that rate in liters per second (L/s)? One method is to take a leaf or other floatable and measuring how many feet it travels on the water in 10 seconds. Take an estimate of width and depth at that spot in feet. Multiply the three numbers together and multiply this result by 2.83168.

3. Based on the above rate of flow what magnitude is this spring?

4. What is the estimated depth of the spring holding pool?

5. What is the elevation at the holding pool?

While no photos are necessary to log this cache, feel free to post as many as you like. (Please, no spoilers.)

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Once you email me the answers, go ahead and post. If your answers are wrong, I will notify you.

GOOD LUCK!

Congrats to VoyagerKY and Driftwoody on the FTF!!!

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