Dissolution Caves of Mississippi
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Mississippi State University Scholars Junction Theses and Dissertations Theses and Dissertations 1-1-2006 Dissolution Caves of Mississippi Christopher Michael Moore Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/td Recommended Citation Moore, Christopher Michael, "Dissolution Caves of Mississippi" (2006). Theses and Dissertations. 1533. https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/td/1533 This Graduate Thesis - Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses and Dissertations at Scholars Junction. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholars Junction. For more information, please contact [email protected]. DISSOLUTION CAVES OF MISSISSIPPI By Christopher Michael Moore A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Mississippi State University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Masters of Sciences in Geosciences in the Department of Geosciences Mississippi State, Mississippi May 2006 Copyright by Christopher Michael Moore 2006 DISSOLUTION CAVES OF MISSISSIPPI By Christopher Michael Moore Approved: _________________________________ _________________________________ John E. Mylroie Darrel W. Schmitz Professor of Geology Head, Department of Geosciences, and (Director of Thesis) Professor of Geology (Committee Member) _________________________________ _________________________________ John C. Rodgers Chris Dewey Professor of Geography Associate Professor of Geology (Committee Member) Graduate Coordinator of the Department of Geosciences _________________________________ Philip B. Oldham Dean, College of Arts and Sciences Name: Christopher Michael Moore Date of Degree: May 13, 2006 Institution: Mississippi State University Major Field: Geosciences Major Professor: Dr. John E. Mylroie Title of Study: DISSOLUTION CAVES OF MISSISSIPPI Pages in Study: 108 Candidate for Degree of Masters of Science The purpose of this project was to distinguish between the karst and pseudokarst caves throughout Mississippi, create an inventory and survey of representative caves and karst features, identify the geology of the rocks hosting the caves, and produce a GIS- based digital karst map. Mississippi is not known for its karst features, yet there are three distinct regions that contain dissolution caves: 1) Paleozoic (Mississippian) limestone; 2) Mesozoic carbonate units; and 3) Cenozoic limestone. There are 44 known caves within the state based on past documentation, however they are not differentiated between karst or pseudokarst features. This study located and mapped 20 caves, of which 18 were karst caves and two were pseudokarst caves. Four of these caves were newly discovered karst caves, increasing the state total to 48; however two karst caves were connected, which makes the final state total 47 caves. There were 28 caves that were not surveyed. DEDICATION I would like to dedicate this research to my parents Jay and Sheila Prince; for always being there with encouragement, and for always pushing me to better myself. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First I would like to thank Dr. John Mylroie for becoming my mentor and, most importantly my friend. I would also like to thank him for keeping me on the straight and narrow when times were hard. Thanks so much for your time and patience. I would also like to thank Joan Mylroie for always being there when I needed someone to talk to. I would like to thanks Dr. Darrel Schmitz and Dr. John Rodgers for agreeing to serve on my thesis committee and for their guidance. I would like to thank the National Parks Service and the National Cave and Karst Research Institute for all their assistance throughout this project. I’d like to thank my Geosciences classmates at Mississippi State for all their assistance. I would like to send a special thanks to Kevin Stafford for teaching me all my caving surveying techniques and for teaching me how to digitize hand sketches. Special thanks also goes out to Adam and Lindsay Walker who helped me map every cave that was surveyed. Without Adam and Lindsay Walker this would not have been possible. I would also like to thank Kevin Toepke, Monty Keel and Krystal Collins who also helped with the finding and mapping of the caves throughout the state. The following landowners are thanked for allowing access to their property; Shirley McPeek, Bill Hill, Clyde Hall ,Tom Hall, and J. R. Waddell. iii I would also like to send out a special thanks to David Ray Williamson, John Sevenair, Mike Bograd, and David Beckett for their help in giving much background knowledge about the caves of Mississippi. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page DEDICATION............................................................................................................ ii ACKNOWLEDMENTS ............................................................................................. iii LIST OF TABLES...................................................................................................... vi LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................................................... vii CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................... 1 Historical Setting ............................................................................................ 2 Physiographic Setting ..................................................................................... 3 Climate............................................................................................................ 4 II. MISSISSIPPI GEOLOGY ............................................................................. 5 Geologic Setting.............................................................................................. 5 Karst Geology of Mississippi.......................................................................... 13 III. METHODS OF INVESTIGATION ............................................................... 30 Data Collection ............................................................................................... 30 Data Processing............................................................................................... 32 IV. RESULTS ....................................................................................................... 33 The Cave and Karst Features of Mississippi................................................... 41 Cave Descriptions ........................................................................................... 42 Rankin County ........................................................................................... 41 Rock House Cave 1, 2, and 3................................................................ 41 Smith County ............................................................................................. 45 Cat’s Den Cave ..................................................................................... 45 Waddell Cave........................................................................................ 49 Tippah County ........................................................................................... 53 Muddy Ridge Cave ............................................................................... 53 v CHAPTER Page Tishomingo County ............................................................................................. 57 Cave Springs (Mingo Cave 1 and Mingo Cave 2)................................ 57 Small Man Cave.................................................................................... 61 Union County............................................................................................. 62 Grubb’s Dry Cave................................................................................. 62 Grubb’s Wet Cave................................................................................. 65 Land of Caves 1 & 2 ............................................................................. 68 Land of Caves 3 .................................................................................... 72 Wayne County ........................................................................................... 75 Beaver Dam Cave ................................................................................. 75 Briar Cave ............................................................................................. 78 Little H Cave......................................................................................... 80 Ramey Pit Cave..................................................................................... 83 Triple H Cave........................................................................................ 86 Tunnel Vision Cave .............................................................................. 92 William’s Cave (Pitt’s Cave)................................................................ 94 Winston County ......................................................................................... 98 Nanih Waiya Cave ................................................................................ 98 V. DISCUSSION................................................................................................. 100 VI. SUMMARY & CONCLUSIONS................................................................... 105 REFERENCES ........................................................................................................... 106 v LIST OF TABLES TABLE Page 1 List of Caves per County. (Knight and others, 1974)..........................................