Underground Rivers - University of New Mexico

Chapter 26 -- Subterranean Water Bodies
Water Characteristics Nomenclature
Liquid we might
scoop in a bucket.
Appreciable velocity, substantial discharge,
somewhat linear waterway, perhaps wadeable.
Appreciable velocity, minor discharge, somewhat
linear, swimmable or boatable.
Negligible velocity, substantial surface area,
somewhat circular in area, boatable.
Negligible velocity, extensive surface area, too
wide to see across, tides and storms.
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Underground Stream
Underground River
Underground Lake
Underground Sea
Witin porous media Wet sand, mud or fractured rock. Groundwater
Magnitude is all that differentiates "underground stream" from "underground river," and
"underground lake" from "underground sea." As it's an issue of perception, not physical behavior,
we'll lump the first pair as "underground river" and the second as "underground lake." We'll deal
with groundwater in Chapter 38, Hydrogeology.
Though there would be implications for exploration, in this chapter we'll not differentiate between
water bodies having a free upper surface and those wholly confined within a conduit. An
"underground river" could thus be pipe-like or it could be a channel meandering along the floor of
a larger cavern.
A "cave" is a cavity in the earth large enough for a person to pass through and deep enough for
total darkness. As for how many caves there are, it depends on who's doing the counting.
Caves in the United States
45,000 "Distribution Map of Caves and Cave Animals in the United States," Journal
of Cave and Karst Studies 61:3, December 1999 by David C. Culver,
Horton H. Hobbs, Mary C. Christman and Lawrence L. Master
17,000 Geology of Caves (1992) by W.E. Davies and I.M. Morgan
11,000 National Speleological Society of America
Cave density tends to increase when the count is done by state or local entities.
8,400 Caves within Tennessee
6,000 Caves within Missouri
The American cave count is a few tens-of-thousands, but beyond that, it depends on who's doing
the count and how they're defining a cave.
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