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Earth Karst Karst Video Photo Gallery Index Tumbling Creek Cave

karst in the ozarks

Tumbling Creek Cave
landmark plaque measuring weir water sample
This "Registered Natural Landmark" plaque, dated 1980, is embedded in rockwork at a man-made entrance into the cave. Tumbling Creek's flow through the cave is measured at this handmade "V" shaped weir. Videotaping Tom Aley as he takes a water sample.
stalactites bat salmander
Inside Tumbling Creek Cave, one can see all kinds of cave decorations formed by dripping water, such as the drapes at left. Center photo is a sleeping tricolor bat, one of the smallest bats in the eastern U.S. On the right is a grotto salamander, found in other caves throughout the Ozarks, but whose species is vulnerable in locations with declining groundwater quality.
Pelham Creek Die Tracing 1 Pelham Creek Die Tracing 2 Pelham Creek die tracing 3
The camera captures the moment that Tom Aley pours fluorescent tracer dye into Pelham Creek and it floats downstream. This dye is used for tracing water flow from above-ground locations - such as live streams, losing streams, and sinkholes - to see where it moves through the groundwater system. Charcoal packets designed to capture the dye are placed at springs, which scientists later test at a lab. Pelham Creek is located within the recharge area of Tumbling Creek Cave's stream, so this dye is expected to move through the cave and be detected in charcoal packets placed at the cave's mouth.
videoing die tracing videoing die tracing tom aley
This grassy swale is a watercourse, an upstream segment of Pelham Creek. This section is a losing stream, and it does not carry water except after major storms. Runoff into this valley usually soaks into the ground and flows through Tumbling Creek Cave. Before Aley bought and replanted this property, it was badly eroded, with big gullies that were depositing loads of sediment into the cave with each rain. With vegetation now holding the soil in place, and the new rock wall to slow water flow, very little sediment is currently entering the cave.
  cave video crew  
  Crew and host pose for a group shot. From left, photographer Vernon Gross, producer/scriptwriter Denise Vaughn, production assistant Kevin Kaiser, cave owner Tom Aley, and videographer Neil Rosenbaum.  
All top photos by Vernon Gross
Bottom photo by Cathy Aley

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