File:Vertical shaft (Mammoth Dome, Mammoth Cave, Kentucky, USA) 1 (19551297164).jpg

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(from an old postcard)


Western Kentucky's Mammoth Cave is the longest cave system on Earth, with 412 miles known and mapped as of fall 2017. The name does not refer to the early discovery of fossil mastodon or mammoth bones here. Rather, the name refers to the immense size of many rooms and passages.

The system has a variety of cave passages: tubular passages, canyon passages, vertical shafts (domepits), keyhole passages, and giant canyon passages.

Mammoth Dome is a large, complexly-shaped domepit that can be viewed during the 2 hour, 2 mile long Historic Tour. Domepits are large, silo-shaped, dissolutional features in caves. They form in the vadose zone (above the water table) as downward-moving groundwater dissolves limestone. Mammoth Dome corresponds to a surface sinkhole (Mammoth Dome Sink) that can be observed along a hiking trail that originates near the park's visitor center.

One measurement puts Mammoth Dome at 150 feet tall. Park signage asserts that it is 192 feet tall.

Shown here is the Ruins of Karnak - dissolutional pillars formed by differential dissolution and fluting of Mammoth Dome's limestone walls. Flutes are common on the walls of vertical shafts. They are vertically-oriented dissolutional grooves formed as water moves downward.

The rocks here are part of the lower Ste. Genevieve Limestone (upper Middle Mississippian).
Date
Source Vertical shaft (Mammoth Dome, Mammoth Cave, Kentucky, USA) 1
Author James St. John

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This image was originally posted to Flickr by James St. John at https://flickr.com/photos/47445767@N05/19551297164 (archive). It was reviewed on 13 October 2019 by FlickreviewR 2 and was confirmed to be licensed under the terms of the cc-by-2.0.

13 October 2019

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31 July 2015

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current17:33, 13 October 2019Thumbnail for version as of 17:33, 13 October 2019958 × 593 (104 KB)Ser Amantio di NicolaoTransferred from Flickr via #flickr2commons

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