111-5 Locating a cave system in southwest Missouri using electrical resistivity

Session: Using Near Surface Geophysics to Investigate Geological Problems (Posters)

Presenting Author:

Authors:

Abstract:

Missouri is considered one of the major cavern regions within the United States with over 7500 caves in the state. Within Southwest Missouri, the caves have formed on a Paleozoic carbonate platform with the majority of the caves in the Springfield area being within Mississippian formations (Burlington-Keokuk, Pierson or Compton Formations) and seem to occur along the edge of the Springfield Plateau. The cave of interest occurs east of Springfield and does not have a known entrance but is only known from historical references. The cave is supposedly within the Compton Formation as the overlying Northview Formation which is a deltaic siltstone is exposed on the property. To determine the location of the cave, three electrical resistivity profiles were collected, with each profile being approximately 100-150 meters long. The Schlumberger array was used and the electrode spacing was five meters. Topography was included in the modeling process as there was significant topographic variations along each profile. One profile shows no evidence of a cave system, while the southeast trending profiles indicate a series of connected cave systems between 8 and 12 meters below the surface within the Compton Formation as indicated by high electrical resistivity values. The high electrical resistivity values indicate that the cave is probably dry and linear nature of the anomalies indicate the cave may have formed along a southeast-trending fracture/fault system.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Program. Vol. 57, No. 6, 2025

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