List of Slides for Mammoth Cave NP

• The Pennyroyal Plateau is an extensive limestone plain, with the best-developed karst landscape in the US.
• Sinkholes dot the plateau.
• Climb into an incipient sinkhole, if you dare!
• Precipitation quickly sinks underground, through sinkholes, so there are few surface streams.
• Dry karst valleys have lost their streams to underground conduits.
• Underground water may return to the surface in springs. Many springs emerge along Dripping Springs escarpment.
• Water from this spring flows into the Green River.
• Dripping Springs escarpment stands higher than the neighboring karst plain because it is topped by a layer of resistant sandstone.
• Here, sandstone is exposed at the top of the escarpment, above the Green River.
• The Green River is the major surface stream in the park; it receives water from many springs fed by water flowing from Mammoth Cave.
• Flowing water dissolves limestone, enlarging joints in the rock and forming caves.
• This picture shows a schematic view of how a cave grows.
• Enter Mammoth Cave by the historic entrance, and you will be inside the world's longest cave system - >315 miles of passages.
• Here is a sketch of Mammoth Cave's many passages.