ABSTRACT
Cherokee Caverns is located in the northwestern part of the Valley and Ridge province in east Tennessee. Regional downcutting throughout the Pliocene has resulted in the preservation of relict cave segments within resistant carbonate ridges. This paper draws upon geologic, hydrologic, and survey work conducted in and around Cherokee Caverns, Copper Ridge Cave, and Eblen Cave. The relationship between conduit geometry and elevation and bedrock lithology has been used to interpret a portion of the geomorphic history of the Oak Ridge area. The resulting conceptual model of the geomorphic history and hydrologic evolution of karst systems in the Oak Ridge area provides information on the nature of karst systems that are still active in the area today. Since cave development and possible contaminant exit pathways in structurally deformed regions are often controlled by bedrock lithology and former or recent baselevels, concepts presented here may be applied to other studies (Rubin and Lemiszki, 1992; Rubin, Lemiszki, and Poling, 1992). The geometry and size of trunk passages in these caves document large paleoflow discharges (from an extensive catchment basin, active for tens of thousands of years), with active flow superposed into and through truncated conduit segments. Conduit geometries in Cherokee Caverns reveal very slow fluvial erosion alternating with periods of comparatively rapid erosional dissection. Relict phreatic conduits have superposed solutional features typical of floodwater origin under alternating vadose and phreatic flow conditions. This paper was prepared for inclusion in an educational guidebook specific to Cherokee Caverns.
