EARTHCACHE REQUIREMENTS
Each cacher must send his/her own answers BEFORE logging a find. Enjoy the journey (learning adventure) as well as the destination (smiley earned). Remember to take only pictures and leave only footprints. To get credit for this Earthcache, complete the following tasks:
1. MESSAGE …. Walk the path from the Blue Hole to the Final Sink. ... a. How far did you walk? .... b. How many times did the water disappear from view?
2. MESSAGE …. Describe two similarities among the three springs - Blue Hole / Boils / Final Sink.
3. MESSAGE …. Describe two differences among the three springs - Blue Hole / Boils / Final Sink.
4. LOG …. Post a picture anywhere along the trail. This picture is your log signature.
OPTIONAL - Please respect the time and effort involved in creating this earthcache by adding A and B to your log.
A. JOURNEY OF THE MIND ... Science explains what we observe. Relate (in your own words) something you found interesting in the reading. This adds to your learning adventure and your log.
B. JOURNEY OF THE HEART ... Art shares our personal experience of what we see. Share something special you found on site, and why it is special to you. This is a memorable addition to your log and will make other hearts smile.
Journeys of Heart and Mind ...
Stories to Touch the Heart and Puzzles to Challenge the Mind / Rainbow Tree Story
THANK YOU Steven Rogers, Park Manager, for permission to place this earthcache.
For more information see http://www.mcconnellsprings.org/images/Interpretive_Notebook01-Overview.pdf
MCCONNELL SPRINGS
McConnell Springs is a twenty-six acre park located where the city of Lexington, Kentucky was named. McConnell Springs is a unique site in Fayette County where a series of three artesian springs alternate between flowing on the surface and flowing underground. The water surfaces at THE BLUE HOLE, flows underground, surfaces again at THE BOILS, flows underground, and surfaces a third time at THE FINAL SINK.
McConnell Springs are the visible portion of an underground drainage system that underlies part of central and south Lexington. When limestone bedrock is near the surface, rain and melted snow pass through the soil into the limestone, finding horizontal and vertical cracks in the rock, and gradually enlarging them over thousands of years. The resulting landscape, usually characterized by sinkholes, springs and caves, is called karst topography. The sinks and rises of McConnell Springs form windows along the flow path of underground streams, where the subterranean conduits are briefly exposed before vanishing again into the rock.
BLUE HOLE
A blue hole is an inland cave or underwater sinkhole. They are also called vertical caves. Blue holes are roughly circular, steep-walled depressions, named for the dramatic contrast between the dark blue, deep waters of their depths and the lighter blue of the shallows around them. The deep blue color is caused by the high transparency of water and bright white carbonate sand. Blue light is the most enduring part of the spectrum. Other parts of the spectrum—red, yellow, and finally green—are absorbed during their path through water, but blue light manages to reach the white sand and return upon reflection.
The first evidence of the hidden watercourse is a deep blue-green pool, known as the Blue Hole, that flows nearly a hundred feet to vanish again beneath a rock ledge. It is an open body of water approximately 15 feet deep. Water that discharges from a bedrock fissure at the bottom has sufficient force to have blown away overlying soil and sediment and maintain a conical or bowl shaped basin. The waters originate from a wide area of southwestern Lexington, flowing underground through the limestone bedrock. It is very sensitive to rainfall levels and to the activities of man.
THE BOILS
About an equal distance further along the trail, the flow again breaks loose from the earth, bubbling up through gravel in an artesian fountain: the Boils. This is where water emerging from the underground conduit can create a column of water that can rise 24 inches out of the ground during a heavy rain. The pressure of the water coming out of the ground at this site through small cracks in the bedrock creates the distinct characteristic of this spring. The Boils are cold rather than hot as their name would suggest. The average temperature of the spring water is 55°F.
This spring and the preceding Blue Hole are both considered artesian springs. Artesian means a well or spring which forces water to the surface of the ground because of pressures below the surface. These two springs have taken very different forms.
NOTE: For more information, see The Boils at McConnell Springs earthcache GC36Q6J.
FINAL SINK
Following the parallel trail, you will arrive at an abrupt end where the water plunges underground once more. The waters disappear here into the Final Sink, this cave-like formation. Beyond this, the water remains invisible below ground, emerging for the last time nearly 2,000 feet away at Preston Cave. The waters join Wolf Run Creek, which empties into the Town Branch of Elkhorn Creek, and then joins other streams on the long trip to the Gulf of Mexico.
GEOLOGY
One of the unique features of the Springs is its location atop a large industrial operation unseen on the surface. More than 435 feet beneath the path is a large limestone mine operated by Vulcan Materials. The geologic units being mined are limestone (calcium carbonate) of the Tyrone, Oregon, and Camp Nelson geologic formations. Limestone is used for cement, concrete, crushed stone, fertilizer and acid water treatment, among other applications. Limestone is second only to coal as Kentucky’s most important mineral product.
Why doesn’t the water we see at McConnell Springs leak through into the mine? The reasons are complex, but numerous thin shale layers, originally mud on the bottom of an ancient sea bottom covering the Bluegrass, block downward movement of the water. Probably other important reasons are the layers of volcanic ash that were spread across the region by volcanoes to the east during the formation of the Appalachian Mountains. These thin layers, far below the surface, contain a clay material called bentonite, which can absorb large amounts of water, swell and block the downward flow of water to the mine. Very little water moves all the way down to the mine.
