Visiting a Cave
If you do go spelunking be very careful and remember that caves are actively being made by the same processes that created them. In February 2012, the former instructor of this class, Christopher Thomas took a group of students from his class in North Carolina on a trip to Hidden River Cave, Kentucky. A “freakish” storm hit the area. Infiltration caused the underground river to rise. Mr. Thomas and his students were 1.5 miles deep inside the cave and had no idea of the storm above. As the water rose three feet and rising, cave director, David Foster notified authorities and the group was rescued.
To the right, a picture of Chris Thomas collecting water from infiltration processes within the cave. To the left, a picture of the front page of the Hart County News Herald. You can click here for a news story about the event. Have you ever seen a sinkhole or visited a cave? Describe your experience in the chat room. Can you relate what you learned here to what you saw or experienced at the sinkhole or cave? This is not a graded assignment, but may help you to make connections between the material presented in this Module and your own experiences. (Incidentally, if your experience is about how you as a teen “trashed” a cave, we promise not to judge you! Just don’t do it again.)
Interested in seeing an Indiana cave? Here are some web resources about caves in Indiana:
Geosciences Library Quick Guide to Indiana Caves
Indiana Geological Survey: “Visiting Caves and Cave Safety”
National Speleological Society Indiana Chapters
The Central Indiana Grotto meets the first Wednesday of every month at the World War Memorial building downtown (Meridian and Michigan Streets). They schedule cave trips every month!
Before you go out on your own, make sure you know Indiana’s Cave Laws!
Indiana Karst Conservancy list of popular, commercial Indiana caves.
This is the end of the lecture. Please continue on to the Global View, and then the Assessment.