Cave and karst research
by Mark Abolins, Ph.D., Mark.Abolins@mtsu.edu,
http://capone.mtsu.edu/mabolins/
.
Sinkhole flooding
*** Click HERE
for the technical details. ***
Much of my recent research focuses on sinkhole flooding, and involves collaboration with Emeritus
Geosciences Professor Albert Ogden. This kind of flooding can happen miles from
any river or stream. Sinkholes are nature’s drain. When more water flows into
the drain than the drain can accommodate, the sink backs up, flooding the
surrounding area. This happens in parts of Rutherford County, TN (Fig. 1),
elsewhere in Tennessee, and in other parts of the world.
Fig. 1. False-color February 2020 satellite image of sinkhole
flooding in Rutherford County, TN.
Caves
*** Click HERE for the
technical details. ***
I am continuing to work with MTSU
students to better-understand Snail Shell and Nanna Caves (Figs. 2 and 3) in
southwestern Rutherford County, TN.
Fig. 2. Location of
Snail Shell and Nanna Caves (Evaluation site) in relation to the Nashville Dome
and Tennessee faults.
Fig. 3. Dr. Abolins
(left) and undergraduate Mark Olivera (right) inside Snail Shell Cave,
Rutherford County, Tennessee. Photo by
Josh Upham.
Bent Rock and Caves
by Mark Abolins, Ph.D.
This 3D visualization (Fig. 4)
depicts folds (bent rock layers) in the vicinity of Snail Shell and Nanna
Caves. The colorful surface is the
bottom of the Lebanon Limestone rock formation.
The rocks are almost flat, so I vertically exaggerated the folds by 100X
to make them visible.
The rocks folded many millions of
years ago when the Appalachian Mountains rose.
Places where the rocks folded upward are called anticlines (if the
uplift is elongate) or domes (if the uplift is more circular), and places where
the rocks folded down are called synclines (if elongate) or basins (if more
nearly circular). As shown in Fig. 3,
Snail Shell and Nanna Caves formed in a place where the rocks folded upward.
Fig. 4. The folded
base of the Lebanon Limestone in the vicinity of Snail Shell and Nanna
Caves. The folds have been vertically
exaggerated by 100X and the caves have been moved down by 120 m to make them
visible.