Bat Cave Home Page

GENERAL 

How to get access to the Cave
How to be a Good Guest
Where is Bat Cave?

The AREA 

The Geologic Time Scale 
Area rock Layers
Topography 
Geomorphology
Geological History 
          The Paleozoic
          The Mesozoic
          The Cenozoic
Water
The Hydrologic Cycle
Solution
Solution chemistry
Karst Landscapes
Erosional Features 
Depositional Features
Environmental Issues 

BAT CAVE

What is a cave?
How was Bat Cave formed?
Surface Plan of the site
Map of the Cave
Life in and around Bat Cave
A Virtual Trip Through Bat Cave

TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE

A Quiz

Bat Cave Home Page

What are the Effects of Solution?

1. It erodes (wears away) the land.
The net effect of all this solution is that it lowers the land surface at an average rate of about 2 inches /1000 years. This does not sound like much, it's only a foot every 6000 years. The area around the cave is less than 100 feet above sea level. If  present rates of lowering were constant, it would only take a little over a half  million years to bring the area around the cave down to sea level. If  we think of the Newberry area as being a young person 20 years old ( and geologically speaking Florida is young) its projected life expectancy would be a mere 3 months. 

2. As it erodes land, it creates a unique landscape called a Karst Landscape
  A karst topography is any topography or landscape that has developed by ground water erosion.  It is characterized by 
1. caves (underground cavities either above or below the water table), 
2. sinkholes (depressions in the surface), 
3. solution valleys (merged sinkholes) and 
4. disappearing streams. (streams that flow at the surface for a while and then flow into a sink). 
5. lack of surface drainage.  In areas where the cover over the limestone is permeable the water infiltrates the sediments and there may be no surface drainage at all. 
This is a section of the USGS 15 minute 1949 Interlachen quadrangle. 
#1 on the map indicate four of the many sinkholes that dot the landscape
#2 are solution valleys or basins
#3 are solution lakes, that occur whereever the sinkholes are deeper than the watertable.
#4 is a large solution basin that has been invaded by vegetation to form a swamp.
Note the complete absence of streams in the 25 mi2 area depicted.