The
karstification of a landscape may result in a variety of large or
small scale features both on the surface and beneath. On exposed
surfaces, small features may include flutes, runnels, clints and
grikes. Medium-sized surface features may include sinkholes or
cenotes (closed basins), disappearing streams, and reappearing
springs.
Large-scale
features may include limestone pavements, poljes and blind valleys.
Mature karst landscapes, where more bedrock has been removed than
remains, may result in karst towers or haystack/eggbox landscapes.
Beneath the surface, complex underground drainage systems (such as
karst aquifers) and extensive caves and cavern systems may
form.
The formation and development
of caves is known as speleogenesis. This is where we derive the
word “Spelunker” for one who explores caves. Caves are
formed by various geologic processes. These may involve a
combination of chemical processes, erosion from water, tectonic
forces, microorganisms, pressure, atmospheric influences, and even
digging.Most caves are formed in limestone by dissolution.
Solutional caves are the most frequently occurring caves and such
caves form in rock that is soluble, such as limestone, but can also
form in other rocks, including chalk, dolomite, marble, salt, and
gypsum. Rock is dissolved by natural acid in groundwater that seeps
through bedding-planes, faults, joints etc. Over geological epochs
cracks expand to become caves or cave systems
The largest and most abundant
solutional caves are located in limestone. Limestone dissolves
under the action of rainwater and groundwater charged with H2CO3
(carbonic acid) and naturally occurring organic acids. The
dissolution process produces a distinctive landform known as karst,
characterized by sinkholes, and underground drainage. Limestone
caves are often adorned with calcium carbonate formations produced
through slow precipitation. These include: flowstones, stalactites,
stalagmites, helictites, soda straws and columns. These secondary
mineral deposits in caves are called
speleothems.
The portions of a solutional
cave that are below the water table or the local level of the
groundwater will be flooded.
Corrasional or erosional
caves are those that form entirely by erosion by flowing streams
carrying rocks and other sediments. These can form in any type of
rock, including hard rocks such as granite. Generally there must be
some zone of weakness to guide the water, such as a fault or joint.
A subtype of the erosional cave is the wind or aeolian cave, carved
by wind-borne sediments. Note that many caves formed initially by
solutional processes often undergo a subsequent phase of erosional
or vadose enlargement where active streams or rivers pass through
them.
Morrell Cave is located in
Sullivan County. It has more than 37,000 feet of mapped passages on
two levels. Morril’s Cave is commonly called Worley’s
Cave locally and is known for its voluminous size with rooms more
than 75 feet wide and 250 feet long with high ceilings that often
exceeds 100 feet. It is noted for its beautiful formations within
its eight to ten miles of passages. The lower level of the cave
contains a perennial creek complete with various fishes, white
crayfish, and salamanders.
An unearthed prehistoric
stonewall some six feet high, built of rocks of various sizes, is
evidence that the cave was likely inhabited by aboriginal people.
It is unknown when the first settler entered Morril’s Cave,
although it has been written that settlers surely would have
encountered the cave by the beginning of the 1800’s. Nothing
is known of the cave until it became the property of Elias S.
Worley. Locally, the cavern is often still referred to as
Worley’s Cave. A large amount of saltpeter was mined from the
cave early in the Civil War. A mill was operated in the early
1900’s where the stream exits at the lower entrance of the
cave. It was said that the stream’s volume was
“sufficient, even in severest drought, to turn the undershot
wheel of a large mill.&rdquo
A local resident John Morril,
led many explorations of the cavern “near the turn of the
century.” Much confusion has arisen over the years about the
proper spelling of the name. It has been called Morrell, Morrill,
Morrils, Morrels, Mirrells, Worley’s and even Worlie’s
Cave. The issue was resolved in 1980 by the U.S. Board on
Geographical Names when it approved the name Morrell Cave. The
Natural Areas Preservation Act, however has not been amended to
change it from Morril’s Cave since it was designated in
1973.
The site is privately owned.
Visitors must follow the directions provided below to the
landowner's house. (Jeff Watson, 449 Timber Ridge
Road)
DIRECTIONS: From Elizabethton
take U.S. Highway 19E/State Route 37 north toward Bunker Hill and
Bluff City. Turn right on Chinquapin Grove Road. Stay on this road
and travel north toward the South Fork of the Holston River. Turn
left, heading west on Dry Branch Road, paralleling the South Fork
of the Holston River. Turn left on Timber Ridge Road. Go about one
mile. Entrance to the property is on the
left.
Upon arriving, go to the
front porch of the landowner's house where the sign-in sheet and
the cave gate keys are kept. Sign in and obtain a key to the cave
gate. Lock the gate behind you after entering the cave and secure
the key where it will not be lost. Lock the gate after you leave
the cave and return the key to the porch before leaving the site.
You may go into the cave even if the landowner is not
home.
In order to log your find, you
must.
- Post a picture of you and your GPSr at any
formation inside the cave.
- Estimate the height of the
wall at the cave entrance.
- From the
cave entrance estimate the distance to the water
below
- What is the predominant type
of stone in the area of the
cavern?