1 / 13

A Hydrologic Study of the Kane Caves in Wyoming

A Hydrologic Study of the Kane Caves in Wyoming. Valerie A. Bennett CE 394K Fall 2000. Motivation. The Kane caves are going to be the subject of my graduate research We are interested in the role that bacteria play in a karst system

emily
Download Presentation

A Hydrologic Study of the Kane Caves in Wyoming

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. AHydrologic Study of the Kane Caves in Wyoming Valerie A. Bennett CE 394K Fall 2000

  2. Motivation • The Kane caves are going to be the subject of my graduate research • We are interested in the role that bacteria play in a karst system • We also hope to determine the source of recharge for the area

  3. Project Goals • Build a base map of geographic and flow data for the Big Horn Lake watershed • Create a point shapefile of the USGS gage station at Kane • Graph streamflow data for one year

  4. Data Sources • HUC coverage for Region 10 from the USGS • River Reach File 1 coverage from the EPA • Information on streamflow for USGS station #06279500 obtained from the USGS National Water Information System

  5. Geologic Setting • The Kane Caves are located in the Bighorn Basin, approximately 130 km east of Yellowstone National Park • They formed in the Little Sheep Mountain Anticline along the Bighorn River

  6. What do bacteria do in a cave? • Bacteria form colonies like the mat seen here • They oxidize sulfur and make sulfuric acid

  7. Geographic Map

  8. The Big Horn Lake Basin

  9. Streamflow • Discharge in the area is important because when discharge is high, the caves become flooded • Flooding provides an influx of nutrients for the bacteria • After a snowmelt, the cave entrance floods for around two months

  10. Streamflow Graph

  11. Conclusions • The Kane Caves of Wyoming formed by sulfuric acid dissolution • For my project, I created a watershed base map for the Big Horn Lake Basin from HUC region 10 and made a point shapefile for the gage station (#06279500) at Kane • I plotted discharge for a period of one year for the Kane station

  12. Future Work • I am in the process of selecting other gaging stations along the Bighorn River that could be good sites for monitoring discharge • I am making a map of other locations in the world where caves are formed by sulfuric acid dissolution

  13. Acknowledgements • Philip Bennett, my advisor (UTDoGS) • Annette Engel (UTDoGS) provided the photos • Funding by NSF LExEN program • Thanks to the USGS for providing so much data for the public

More Related