Caves, Karst, and Science in the Buckeye Creek Cave Watershed

Abstract

The Buckeye Creek watershed is a 14 km² enclosed basin of which 12 km² drains through Buckeye Creek Cave to lower Spring Creek. The 1.6-km long stream passage is generally 6+ meters wide and 3+ meters high with the primary restrictions being the Gray Canyon near the entrance and partially flooded sewer passages near cave’s downstream terminus. The passages below Turner Avenue are large trunks that are connected to the present stream passage by collapse features and solutional passages that may be remnant phreatic loops. Buckeye Creek grades to Spring Creek and the modern cave stream generally follows strike. The highest passages in Buckeye Creek Cave are at least 788,000 years old based on magnetic reversals found in cave sediments. Buckeye Creek Cave is being enlarged by corrosion, but abrasion and quarrying also play important roles. The abrasion is accomplished by sediment transported during floods. Three stalagmites were used to study local climates over the past 7,000 years. The most detailed time series record multiple dry periods lasting centuries. The “droughts” coincided with Bond Events, which were episodic periods of enhanced ice-rafting in the North Atlantic Ocean believed to have been triggered by protracted cooling.