By Kyle Ellsasser

The Mammoth Caves

When it became a park and why

The Mammoth Caves became a national park in 1926. It contains a wonderful cave ecosystem spread out through 53,000 acres of land in Kentucky. It is an international treasure.

How it was made

Mammoth Caves are made of limestone that was eroded by the Green River, and it’s tributaries over the last 350,000,000 years.

Sign showing the Green River effects.

The types of rocks that are there

The caves are primarily made of eroded limestone, a cover of sandstone, and traces of gypsum that turn black in the cave because of the ash that rises from the torches of cave explorers.

Types of landforms

There is an underground river at the lowest level of the caves, as well as many monuments such as the Haunted Caverns, Mammoth Dome, Bottomless Pit, Fat Mans Misery, Tall Mans Agony and many more.

Mammoth DomeBottomless Pit

How the land inside the park is currently changing As rainwater infiltrates the soil, it picks

up small amounts of carbon dioxide gas. Carbon dioxide reacts with the water to form a weak carbonic acid, making the groundwater mildly acidic. This wears away the limestone, creating the cave.

How the land inside the park is currently changingThe water that drips from the ceiling contains eroded limestone. As some of the water evaporates, the limestone starts forming stalactites (top). The extra water that doesn’t evaporate goes to the floor creating stalagmites (bottom).

What environmental issues are affecting the park Rainwater flows through the caves aquatic

habitats. Pollutants like human waste, agricultural runoff, hazardous spills on roadways, and oil and gas drilling wastes are washing into cave streams.

Kentucky has over 10,000 sinkholes that feed the cave systems. Farmers sometimes use them as their own personal garbage disposal.

How technology is helping maintain and preserve the park Scientists are constantly monitoring the

caves air flow, life and lighting the cave. But to keep the cave as natural as possible they are not physically doing anything to the caves.

Rats nest with debris taken into the cave by a rat from a sink hole

How technology is helping maintain and preserve the park

Also the park did use incandescent light bulbs. They now have figured out that those type of light bulbs create heat loving algae. They have recently switched to LED lights.

Topographic and relief map of the caves

Extra facts

The bottomless pit is actually only 109 feet deep. Explorers thought it was bottomless because they could not see the bottom.

Steven bishop was an African slave, and also a popular tour guide.

Mammoth Cave has 6 natural entrances. The caves are over 390 miles long. Also they are

still discovering an estimated one mile each month.

Outlaw Jesse James has been rumored to have been in the caves.

Bibliography

Mammoth Cave Project. Wikipedia. Web. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mammoth_Cave_National_Park>.