Fact Sheet on 6000 Caves
Release date:
The
What is a cave?
A cave is a natural cavity in
rock which can be entered for an appreciable distance by a human.
How many caves are recorded in state at this time?
Is this the most in the
No,
Why does
Most caves in the state are
formed in dolomite or limestone rock units; some relatively short caves are
formed in sandstone or other non-soluble rocks. Much of southern
How old are these rock units and the caves in them?
The majority of the caves are
found in rocks dating from the Ordovician period (425-500 million years ago),
lesser numbers in older Cambrian rock or younger Mississippian rocks. The
actual age of the caves themselves probably varies from tens of thousands of
years to millions of years.
What is a cave area?
The term “karst” is used to
describe areas having large numbers of caves in them. In addition to caves,
karst regions have sinkholes, springs, losing streams, and natural tunnels in
them.
What counties have the most caves?
Perry 656
Greene 360
Pulaski 350
Stone 283
Christian 220
Crawford 205
What are some of the most popular names of caves?
Spring 480
Hollow 192
Bluff 164
Bear 61
River 44
Are there caves in cities? Perryville and
What are the longest caves?
Devils Icebox,
Meramec Caverns,
What are the deepest (below entrance) caves?
Most of the rest of the deep
caves are divable springs, the bottom of the deepest
of which is approximately at sea level.
How are depth and length calculated?
Caves are surveyed with
standard methodologies utilizing tapes, compasses, and .clinometers.
How many
Over 2900 cave maps are
currently on file with the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, Geologic
Survey/Resource Assessment Division.
Where are the highest and lowest caves in
Highest caves in elevation
are found in Wright and
Who owns most of the caves?
Most caves (75%) are
privately owned; public agencies own about 1500 caves total.
Where can I see caves being formed?
Caves are formed from
processes that you can still observe: at large springs in the Ozarks, or in
sinkholes in many parts of the state.
How have the numbers of caves known grown over the
years?
Missouri Geologic Survey had
list of caves about 1940 that showed 210 caves in 40 counties.
J Harlen
Bretz wrote Caves of Missouri 1956 and recorded 437
caves in 55 counties.
The Missouri Speleological
Survey was formed in 1956. By 1968 the MSS had recorded 2250 caves in 76
counties.
Today there are 6037 caves
recorded in 83 counties.
53 of those new caves have
been recorded since the beginning of 2005.
Most new caves being found
are in south-central to southwest
How are new caves located?
Some caves are discovered by
accident. Others are located by natural resource work by government agency
employees. Some are reported by the owners of the property the caves are on.
Most are found by members and cooperators of the Speleological Survey searching
areas of the state for new caves. Knowing the topography and geology of the
area provides clues to places where caves might be found.
Are there more caves to be found?
Some large areas of suitable
topography and geology have few caves currently known from them. There are
probably still thousands of unreported caves in
Who is doing all this locating work? Some of the most
active are:
Ben Miller,
age 26, Interpreter and resource tech at
Scott House,
age 51 (
Andy Free,
age 30?, Armory technician, Ft. Leonard Wood
(Waynesville)
Randy Long,
Cave Technician,
Michael Sutton,
age 57, Ecologist, Cave Research Foundation (Lesterville)
Michael Carter,
age 31, geography student, SMSU (
Jon Beard,
age 54, Occupation: Training Designer at 3M for 27 years. (
Tom Panian
age 47, occupation - Union Carpenter, (
Steve Taylor
age 47, freight conductor for the Union Pacific Railroad. (
Kirsten Alvey age 37, Food Service Manager and House Chef
for Kappa Alpha Fraternity at Univ of Mo. (
Dan Lamping
age 25 Student / Maintenance, (
James Corsentino age 36, Communications, (
And many, many others…………
If studying caves and making maps interest you, and
you would someday like to be on the list above, check out the MSS web site Projects area and/or talk to
your grotto’s MSS
Representative.
Scott House, Cave Files Manager
The