11/4/2022 0 Comments Lost caves tnSeveral caves in State Parks have been gated to protect these cultural resources, and admittance is only allowed when accompanied by a park employee. These remains can be from the Native Americans, and be thousands of years old. Some caves may have remains from saltpeter mining dating to the Civil War, or the War of 1812. Some caves might contain the remains of old moonshine stills, placed in caves to avoid detection during Prohibition. But all of these cultural remains are important and most very sensitive. Some caves, after the water has receded and the cave dry, have cultural remains from man’s human usage. Other caves can have ice age remnants of the mammals that used those caves for shelters. The karst systems near the common border of Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia (aka the TAG region) contains the greatest diversity of cave-obligate species in North America. Spiders, millipedes, beetles, and other small critters sometimes evolve in the isolation of their one cave and may be limited to that one cave, or other caves in that area. Because caves can be very stable environments, the animals found living in a cave are unique to that cave. Even the primary formation of caves can leave remarkable channels and sculpted rock, or sometimes large rooms. These cavities can stretch for miles along the original bedding planes or joints in the beds.Ĭaves can have a variety of secondary formations found within them: stalactites, stalagmites, flowstone, and a variety of other forms of calcite left by the slow movement of water in caves. When exposed to rain and flowing water, limestone erodes leaving channels and cavities. Now hardened into the different rock formations, limestone is also very soluble. Limestone is a rock laid down as calcium deposits on the bottoms of shallow oceans, millions of years ago. Most of Tennessee’s caves are in the eastern two-thirds of the state, in areas with limestone. For the potential explorer, wild caves hold amazing resources, but also challenging dangers.
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