Locating a Sealed Cave in Kentucky Using Electrical Resistivity Surveys

Abstract

Clifton Cave in Woodford County, Kentucky, was known as the habitat for two unique cave-dwelling species only found living in the cave and associated nearby habitats. The cave was surveyed in 1964, but the only cave entrance was destroyed and sealed by road improvements in 1970. To determine whether these species are still present in the cave and to plan future conservation efforts, researchers need to regain access to the cave. A vertical access hole into the cave passage was proposed because the 1964 cave survey provided the general location of the cave passages. In order to determine potential drilling sites to locate cave passages, we conducted two electrical resistivity surveys. Orientation, length, electrode spacing, and location of the surveys were designed to detect three estimated cave passage targets. The survey results showed excellent correspondence between the high resistivity anomalies and all the estimated targets. Although survey results have not been confirmed by drilling, the excellent correspondence suggested the electrical resistivity method is a promising reconnaissance tool for locating caves at relatively shallow depths.

Beneath the Surface: Identifying Subsurface Caves in "Gua Pandan" Using Integrated Electrical Profiling Method

“…They fall into the non-destructive tests category, performing the geophysical approach. The first method is resistivity; many studies commonly implemented it to detect cavity/ void with several configurations, such as Wenner Alpha [2,3], Wenner Schlumberger [2,[4][5][6], dipole-dipole [2,[6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14], pole-dipole [6,[15][16][17], and pole-pole [5,6]. Different outcomes were obtained from those studies.…”

“…Different outcomes were obtained from those studies. Most of them denoted that more than 1,000 Ωm is an air-filled cavity [4,6,9,11]. Nevertheless, a few interpreted that an underground air-filled cave has a resistivity value of about 2,000 Ωm [14], more than 3,000 Ωm [8,12], or even more than 5,000 Ωm [16].…”