Event Title
A Blueprint for the Assessment of Inorganic Carbon Flow Paths in the Great Onyx Groundwater Basin, Mammoth Cave National Park
Session Type
Technical Sessions: Conservation Tools
Start Date
18-8-2020 1:00 PM
Description
Assessment of the contribution of carbonate rock terrain to the global carbon budget is complicated by the interrelationships of carbonate rock dissolution and precipitation, diversity of flow paths and travel times of water moving through the soil and rock mass, and chemical and isotopic interchanges along these flow paths. The Great Onyx Groundwater Basin provides a testbed for untangling these relationships. The Great Onyx Groundwater Basin is an essentially pristine karst flow system developed within the alternating carbonate and clastic rocks of Mammoth Cave National Park’s Hilly Country. The nearby, deeply incised, Green River pro-vides roughly 100 m of relief. There is a sequence from upper clastics, the intermediate Haney Limestone, the ridge-forming, massive Big Clifty Sandstone, and down to base level, the massive Girkin and Ste. Genevieve Limestones. More than 20 km of cave passages provide access to seepage flows, shaft flows, and base-level streams for sampling and flow measurements. Atmospheric CO2 exchanges with organic-derived soil CO2 and with sequestered CO2 in the carbonate bedrock as meteoric water makes its way down the gradient to ultimately discharge at a spring at river level. CO2 consumption by dissolution can be traced as well as re-sequestration by speleothem deposition. Net gain and/or carbon loss can be traced along each of multiple flow paths, leading to an overall carbon budget for the Great Onyx Basin
Recommended Citation
White,, William Presenter, "A Blueprint for the Assessment of Inorganic Carbon Flow Paths in the Great Onyx Groundwater Basin, Mammoth Cave National Park" (2020). Conservation of Fragile Karst Resources Proceedings. 4.
https://digitalcommons.wku.edu/con_karst_res_proc/con_karst_pro_2020/day_one/4
A Blueprint for the Assessment of Inorganic Carbon Flow Paths in the Great Onyx Groundwater Basin, Mammoth Cave National Park
Assessment of the contribution of carbonate rock terrain to the global carbon budget is complicated by the interrelationships of carbonate rock dissolution and precipitation, diversity of flow paths and travel times of water moving through the soil and rock mass, and chemical and isotopic interchanges along these flow paths. The Great Onyx Groundwater Basin provides a testbed for untangling these relationships. The Great Onyx Groundwater Basin is an essentially pristine karst flow system developed within the alternating carbonate and clastic rocks of Mammoth Cave National Park’s Hilly Country. The nearby, deeply incised, Green River pro-vides roughly 100 m of relief. There is a sequence from upper clastics, the intermediate Haney Limestone, the ridge-forming, massive Big Clifty Sandstone, and down to base level, the massive Girkin and Ste. Genevieve Limestones. More than 20 km of cave passages provide access to seepage flows, shaft flows, and base-level streams for sampling and flow measurements. Atmospheric CO2 exchanges with organic-derived soil CO2 and with sequestered CO2 in the carbonate bedrock as meteoric water makes its way down the gradient to ultimately discharge at a spring at river level. CO2 consumption by dissolution can be traced as well as re-sequestration by speleothem deposition. Net gain and/or carbon loss can be traced along each of multiple flow paths, leading to an overall carbon budget for the Great Onyx Basin
Comments
This presentation was part of the Technical Sessions on Conservation Tools. Presentation topics ranged from cave conservation techniques, environmental education, community engagement, resource protection assessment, and scientific and cultural research from across the globe. Formats vary from traditional PowerPoints to films to story maps and informal interviews.