The focus of this book is on the more than 2000 caves of the Greenbrier Valley of West Virginia of which the 14 with lengths greater than 10 km have an aggregate length of 639 km. The major caves form the core part of sub-basins which drain to big springs and ultimately to the Greenbrier River. Individual chapters of this book describe each of the major caves and its associated drainage basin. The caves are formed in the Mississippian Greenbrier Limestone in a setting of undulating gentle folds. Fractures, lineaments and confining layers within the limestone are the main controlling factors. The caves underlie an extensive sinkhole plain which may relate to a major erosion surface. The caves are habitat for both aquatic and terrestrial organisms which are cataloged and described as are the paleontological remains found in some of the caves. The sinkhole plain of the Greenbrier karst and the underlying complex of cave systems are the end result of at least a ten million year history oflandscape evolution which can be traced through the evolving sequence of cave passages and which is described in this book.

Inhalt

The Greenbrier Karst.- Geology of the Greenbrier Valley.- Hydrology of the Greenbrier Karst.- Karst Geomorphology.- The Exploration History of the Greenbrier Valley Caves.- The Swago Creek Basin.- The Little Levels and the Hills Creek Basin.- The Friars Hole System.- Caves, Karst, and Science in the Buckeye Creek Cave Watershed.- The Culverson Creek Cave System.- The Contact Caves of Central Greenbrier County.- The Hydrology of the Sinking Creek/Muddy Creek Karst Basin.- Organ Cave.- Caves of the Dickson Spring Basin, Monroe County.- Windy Mouth Cave.- Scott Hollow Cave.- The Laurel Creek Basin and Greenville Saltpeter Cave.- Terrestrial Fauna in the Greenbrier Karst.- The Subterranean Aquatic Fauna of the Greenbrier Karst.- PleistoceneVertebrates from Greenbrier Valley Caves