Hydrology of a Karst Area in east‐central West Virginia

Open Access
Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Movement of groundwater through a maturely karsted limestone aquifer in Pocahontas County, West Virginia, was studied by dye‐tracing and extensive underground mapping techniques. The aquifer consists of 400 feet of flat‐lying Mississippian Greenbrier limestone. The drainage basin of Hills Creek is completely enclosed by clastic rocks, and discharge is by subterranean flow. The Swago Creek underground drainage is quite unrelated to surface drainage, and drainage lines cross major surface divides. Underground divides have been mapped and may occur under valleys as well as under ridges. The water table is remarkably flat, with abrupt breaks in slope only near the margins of the area under a rugged surface topography whose relief exceeds 2000 feet. The surface topography is not reflected in the karst water table, and free‐surface flow often occurs as much as 1000 feet below the land surface. Even minor insoluble beds are capable of perching tributary underground streams as much as several hundred feet above base level. Underground flow takes place along hydraulic gradients that point to the major base‐leveling stream of the area, the Greenbrier River, rather than to surface valleys. (Key words: Drainage basin characteristics; geomorphology; groundwater; West Virginia)

This publication has 1 reference indexed in Scilit: