Scott Hollow Cave
Description
Survey
See : personal.denison.edu/~stocker/cavemap.html NB : On this survey map, you can read the entrance coordinates : 37° 41' 00'' N / 80° 33' 30'' W
Abstract
The Scott Hollow Drainage basin is a mature karst system that serves as a northward flowing subterranean tributary to the Greenbrier River. A well-developed conduit system transports waters through this upland basin via a series of branchwork passages. The main underground stream, the Mystic River, flows 10.4 km (6.5 miles) and has both eastern and western tributaries, fed by a combination of concentrated and diffuse recharge. Upper-level passages are mostly disconnected from the active lower ones and seem related to an earlier phase of speleogenesis. The complex flow system is impacted by surface land use in this rural basin, and well drilling has resulted in intersection with the cave in at least two places. Aquifer development within this basin follows structurally controlled initial porosity and “perching” on an underlying shale unit. The northward flowing Mystic River is controlled by regional flexures resulting from Alleghenian compressive stress and an unmapped thrust fault. Tributaries joining the Mystic River from the east generally trend down dip along bedding planes, while western tributaries follow steeper, more complex paths, at least partially controlled by a thrust fault. This has resulted in chemical differences between the waters constituting these tributaries, although all are fed by sinking streams from the upland surface. Sediments within the cave include chert gravels in the active streams (many of which are manganese oxide coated), along with relict diamicts that are currently undergoing excavation. Source : * Lane, S.B., Bishop, M.R., Dore, M.J., Sasowsky, I.D. (2018). Scott Hollow Cave. In: White, W. (eds) Caves and Karst of the Greenbrier Valley in West Virginia. Cave and Karst Systems of the World. Springer, Cham. doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65801-8_16 : link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-65801-…
Gallery (photos and video)
Photos : www.flickr.com/photos/realms_of_reality/albums/721… Video : www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCHWvpeRa0c
History
The entrance to the cave was dug open. Prior to the digging there was no entrance to the cave system at all, but since the cave was opened up it has yielded approximately 24.7 miles of passage. The total depth of the cave is 571 feet. New passage is still being discovered to this day. The cave has many large passages and rooms throughout. There are multiple streams in the cave which all converge into the large main stream passage called Mystic River. Source : * www.oocities.org/~caves/ed4.htm
Reputation ranking
Scott Hollow Cave is the 3rd largest cave system in West Virginia and the 13th longest in the US !
Didier Borg (10/03/2017)