%0 Journal Article
%T Approaching Cave Level Identification with GIS: A Case Study of Carter Caves
%A Brianne S. Jacoby
%A Eric W. Peterson
%A John C. Kostelnick
%A Toby Dogwiler
%J ISRN Geology
%D 2013
%R 10.1155/2013/160397
%X Cave passages that are found at similar elevations are grouped together and called levels. The current understanding is that passages within a level are speleogenetically linked to a common static baselevel or stratigraphic control. Cave levels have provided an interpretive framework for deciphering cave development, landscape evolution, and climatic changes. Cosmogenic dating has been successfully used to interpret levels in Mammoth Cave and the Cumberland Plateau; however, this technique is expensive and there are limited funding resources available. Geographic information systems may be used as preliminary procedures to identify cave levels and constrain the timing of level development. A GIS method is applied to the Carter Cave system in northeastern Kentucky. Cave entrance elevations along stream valleys were found by extracting elevation values from a £¿m digital elevation model. Using a histogram generated from the frequency of cave elevations and a natural breaks classifier, four cave levels were identified in the Carter Cave system. This work improves the understanding of the Carter Cave system evolution and contributes toa methodology that can be used to ascertain an erosion history of karst systems. 1. Introduction In fluviokarst, dissolution creates a system vertically and horizontally connecting surface and subsurface flow paths. Passage development is dependent on the elevation of base flow, stratigraphy, the diversion of water in the unsaturated zone to lower levels, discharge variations, and variations in chemistry [1]. Long periods of static base level with active dissolution allow for large passages to develop in discrete levels, graded to the regional hydrologic network. When river incision occurs as a result of regional base level lowering, groundwater flow is diverted to lower elevations [1¨C3]. Subsequently, dissolution and passage enlargement is limited or stopped in the abandoned upper levels as karst development becomes focused at the new base level. Alternating sequences of base level incision and aggradation results in a complex overprinting of level development with transitional passage morphologies and deposition or removal of broadly distributed sediment packages [4]. Deciphering the history of speleogenesis in such systems, including the delineation of cave levels, provides insight into the history of past base level changes and the associated glacio-eustatic or tectonic processes. Passages that are created by static base level and correlate with other passages at similar elevations are grouped together and considered a
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/isrn.geology/2013/160397/