Cache in daylight hours only.
This cache was originally part of the 2021 Seneca County Geo Trail (SCGT).
Destination Seneca County had partnered with Cachers Anonymous to bring you the 2021 Seneca County Geo Trail (SCGT). This geo trail extended from Fostoria, in the west, to Attica in the east. The 2021 SGCT originally took you to 20 locations to show off beautiful Seneca County.
To receive credit for this cache, please answer the questions below. After answering the questions in a message to the cache owner, please POST A PICTURE of yourself (or an easily identifiable personal/signature item that indicates that YOU were actually there) near ground zero of an easily identifiable feature that you liked. Only cachers that were physically present will be allowed to log this earthcache as a find as per geocaching guidelines.
NOTE: logs that do not include this required picture will be deleted.
Seneca Caverns is open to the public from May through the end of October. It is closed from November to April, but there is permission to go to the parking lot, take your picture and answer the questions in the off season. This cache can be completed year round! You can call for hours: 419-483-6711. Daylight hours only please.
Questions:
1) What kind of rock is this cave made of?
2) Where do the Karst areas extend to?
3) Where is a famous blue hole from this cavern located?
4) As you look around, what terrain features can you identify (and which direction are they) that indicate that a Karst is there?
5a) Now, here is something you would likely find inside the caverns and in the karst areas. There is a 3 panel educational display at ground zero that should not require any searching that is available year-round. The top left row of the left most panel, the third item from the left is the most common of its type here. What is it?
5b) ALSO, Explain in your own words why this thing would be the most common here. (If you go on the Caves tour, your guide will be able to explain why but you should be able to figure out why that particular item would end up here without the tour. It may require a little thinking and maybe some light research.)
History
Preserved close to its original natural state, Seneca Caverns is a unique and educational adventure which you will always remember.
Seneca Caverns was discovered in June 1872 by two boys, Peter Rutan and Henry Komer of Flat Rock, Ohio, while hunting rabbits with their dog. Their dog chased a rabbit to a brush pile, where the dog and rabbit then disappeared.
The boys dug around the brush pile and discovered an opening, which was actually a natural sinkhole. The boys fell through the opening, landing in the first level of the cave. They found their dog, and crawled back up to the cave entrance. They then returned home and told everyone about their discovery.
The cave became known as Good’s Cave, for Mr. Emmanuel Good, the owner of the farm on which the cave was located. In 1929, Don and Fannie Bell moved to Bellevue, where Mr. Bell established his law practice. Mr. Bell became interested in caves while taking an elective geology course at the University of Michigan Law School. The course included a field trip to Mammoth Cave area in Kentucky. The great beauty of these underground natural wonders fascinated Mr. Bell; this fascination remained with him all of his life. Soon after moving to Bellevue, Mr. Bell heard about Good’s Cave. It was his interest in caves that compelled him to explore the cave with Mr. Good.
In 1931, Mr. Bell discovered a series of passageways and rooms not previously known to exist, which led to an underground river, the water table. With this discovery, Don Bell thought the cave was large enough to develop commercially. Following two and a half year’s improvement effort, Seneca Caverns was opened to the public on May 14, 1933.
Retained close to its original, natural, wild state, this subterranean tour is truly a unique and educational experience you will always remember.
Geology
Karst is a type of land surface that is formed over limestone, dolomite, or gypsum by dissolving or dissolution, and is characterized by closed depressions or sinkholes, caves, and underground drainage system. From the Slavic word Kras - meaning “bleak waterless place”. -source Glossary of Geology, 1974, American Geological Institute.
Karst development in Ohio is fairly widespread throughout the western half of the state. However, detailed karst hydrogeologic (groundwater) studies of the region have been seriously lacking. Recent studies by Tintera (1980), Tintera & Forsyth (1980), Kihn (1988) and Miller (2001) identified various karst features and have greatly increased our knowledge of the geology of the area and the groundwater system, which underlies it.
Landforms, which develop as a result of rock being dissolved (dissolution), such a as limestone, dolomite, marble, gypsum, and salt are collectively known as karst. The distinct features of a karst landscape include sinkholes, caves, large springs, dry valleys and shrinking steams. These systems are characterized by the gravity flow of weak carbon dioxide (CO2) charged groundwater percolating through fractures and openings that enlarge as the bedrock dissolves. Surface water, i.e. rain or snowmelt, drains rapidly into the subsurface system recharging it. Consequently, within the recharge area, there are no significant surface systems developed.
Our original karst area begins south and west of the caverns and extends northward to Sandusky Bay. The undulating or rolling topography of small hills and depressions is the surface expression of the subsurface condition. Although masked by glacial till from Pleistocene Ice Age, the karst landscape remains the predominate landform in this area.
The groundwater flows north through this system of fractures, voids, and partings and emerges (is discharged) at the surface about fourteen (14) miles (23 Kilometers) north of the caverns in the vicinity of the village of Castalia. The presence of artesian springs, seeps, free flowing wells and wetlands characterize this area. The famous Blue Hole at Castalia is but one of many springs in this discharge zone. Water alone can dissolve salt and gypsum but limestone, dolomite and marble are much less soluble and require acidic water to initiate this natural process. Carbonic acid is a mild naturally occurring acid that is present in groundwater. This acid is created when water falling through the atmosphere absorbs small amounts of the carbon dioxide present there. As this slightly acidic rainwater percolates through the soil it absorbs additional carbon dioxide and becomes more acidic. This more highly concentrated weak acidic solution (carbonic acid) readily dissolves calcite which is the principal mineral in limestone and marble and an important mineral in dolomite. (reprinted with permission of Seneca Caverns)
Cache in daylight hours only.