The Lost River is a river that rises in Vernon Township, Washington County, Indiana, and discharges into the East Fork of the White River in Lost River Township, Martin County, Indiana. [1] [2] The river's unusual hydrology has led to two of its features being named as National Natural Landmarks. [3]
The Lost River is about 87 miles (140 km) long, [4] and its name is derived from the fact that at least 23 miles (37 km) of the primary course of the river flows completely underground. The river's underground channels may in fact cover hundreds of miles, as the caverns have never been fully explored. The river disappears into a series of sink holes of the type that are abundant in the karstland of southern Indiana. In one square mile there are as many as 1,022 sink holes. The river slips into and out of these sink holes at various points flowing into hidden caverns that connect with multiple other streams, rivers, and springs. [5]
The Lost River begins as a normal river in Washington County, but soon after rising, the river flows over and into a limestone bed (karst) for several miles until the stream bed turns dry; the water is absorbed into the limestone and sinks beneath the surface to a hidden cavern.
The river then flows underground through a network of caves and channels through part of Orleans Township, Paoli Township, and part of Orangeville Township before reappearing on the surface near the village of Orangeville. Where the river rises to the surface in Orange County it produces a spring that is 165 feet (50 m) deep, with the very bottom connecting to the actual underground channel. This spring, the second largest in the state, is known as the True Rise, because many inaccurately believe that the Orangeville Rise is the main channel of the river. [6] The Orangeville rise is a likely tributary of the underground Lost River. [5] The river then continues its westward flow above ground.
At most times and under most conditions, other than extreme flooding, the westward-flowing Lost River vanishes into a series of sinkholes in a river bed located close to Indiana State Road 337 four miles (6 km) east of Orleans. The sinkholes into which the river flows are progressively the Stein Swallowhole, then Turner Swallowhole, and, by far the largest, the Tolliver Swallowhole. [6] The river then flows underground to the National Natural Landmark Wesley Chapel Gulf, which is 8.3 acres (34,000 m2) large and forms a box canyon with 30-to-100-foot-high (9.1 to 30.5 m) bedrock walls, where the river briefly appears before once again disappearing below the surface. [5]
Approaching southern Martin County, the river resurfaces from another sink hole. Restored to the Earth's surface, it then flows westward past West Baden Springs and French Lick and flows into the East Fork of the White River.
At its mouth, the river's estimated mean annual flow rate is 432.1 cubic feet per second (12.24 m3/s). [7] A USGS stream gauge on the river near Prospect recorded a mean annual discharge of 282.3 cu ft/s (7.99 m3/s) during water years 2010–2019. The highest daily mean discharge during that period was 6,030 cu ft/s (171 m3/s) on May 3, 2011. The lowest daily mean discharge was 4.3 cu ft/s (0.12 m3/s) on September 23, 2012. [8]
The submerged river and its tributaries probably flow through not one, but a multitude of different channels in the Orleans-Paoli area, most of which are unmapped or poorly understood. A significant number of sinkholes, some of them of significant dimensions in and of themselves, mark pathways of the underground river and its various channels. It is possible that the Lost River is carving a cave system for itself of dimensions similar to that of the Mammoth Cave system in nearby Kentucky.
Since 1996 a group from primarily the St. Joseph Valley Grotto has been surveying passages of what is now called the Lost River System. As of July 2008 the cave system stands at 20.91 miles (33.65 km) in length. This places it as the second longest cave in Indiana and the 26th longest in the US.
In addition to the underground channels that the Lost River uses for most of its flow, the river also possesses and utilizes a dry surface bed. During flood times all or part of the river's network of underground channels becomes saturated with water, and part of the Lost River flows in its surface bed in the same manner as a normal river.
The Wesley Chapel Gulf in eastern Orangeville Township is a 8.3 acres (34,000 m2) sinkhole which was caused by the collapse of the rock roof over one of the underground channels of the Lost River. It is part of Hoosier National Forest. In 1972, Wesley Chapel Gulf was designated as a National Natural Landmark by the National Park Service. [9]
The Orangeville Rise in central Orangeville Township is a spring from which water wells up in one of the discharge points from the underground hydrological network that carries the flow of the Lost River. It is a tributary to the Lost River.
Karst is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble carbonate rocks such as limestone and dolomite. It is characterized by features like poljes above and drainage systems with sinkholes and caves underground. There is some evidence that karst may occur in more weathering-resistant rocks such as quartzite given the right conditions.
A sinkhole is a depression or hole in the ground caused by some form of collapse of the surface layer. The term is sometimes used to refer to doline, enclosed depressions that are also known as shakeholes, and to openings where surface water enters into underground passages known as ponor, swallow hole or swallet. A cenote is a type of sinkhole that exposes groundwater underneath. Sink and stream sink are more general terms for sites that drain surface water, possibly by infiltration into sediment or crumbled rock.
A subterranean river is a river or watercourse that runs wholly or partly beneath the ground, one where the riverbed does not represent the surface of the Earth. It is distinct from an aquifer, which may flow like a river but is contained within a permeable layer of rock or other unconsolidated materials. A river flowing below ground level in an open gorge is not classed as subterranean.
A cenote is a natural pit, or sinkhole, resulting when a collapse of limestone bedrock exposes groundwater. The term originated on the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico, where the ancient Maya commonly used cenotes for water supplies, and occasionally for sacrificial offerings. The name derives from a word used by the lowland Yucatec Maya—tsʼonoʼot—to refer to any location with accessible groundwater.
Marengo Cave is a privately owned cave located in Marengo, Indiana. One of only four show caves in Indiana, public tours of the cave have been given since 1883. Tours commenced just days after the cave's discovery by two school children. The cave was designated as a National Natural Landmark in 1984.
The Alapaha River is a 202-mile-long (325 km) river in southern Georgia and northern Florida in the United States. It is a tributary of the Suwannee River, which flows to the Gulf of Mexico.
A losing stream, disappearing stream, influent stream or sinking river is a stream or river that loses water as it flows downstream. The water infiltrates into the ground recharging the local groundwater, because the water table is below the bottom of the stream channel. This is the opposite of a more common gaining stream which increases in water volume farther downstream as it gains water from the local aquifer.
Harrison Spring is the largest spring in the U.S. state of Indiana. It is located in west-central Harrison County, near the Blue River and just north of White Cloud.
Orangeville Rise is the second largest spring in the U.S. state of Indiana, in Orange County near Orangeville. It was designated a National Natural Landmark in June 1972. It is owned and managed by The Nature Conservancy and the Indiana Karst Conservancy.
Dos Ojos is part of a flooded cave system located north of Tulum, on the Caribbean coast of the Yucatán Peninsula, in the state of Quintana Roo, Mexico. The exploration of Dos Ojos began in 1987 and still continues. The surveyed extent of the cave system is 82 kilometers (51 mi) and there are 28 known sinkhole entrances, which are locally called cenotes. In January 2018, a connection was found between Sistema Dos Ojos and Sistema Sac Actun. The smaller Dos Ojos became a part of Sac Actun, making the Sistema Sac Actun the longest known underwater cave system in the world.
A karst window, also known as a karst fenster, is a geomorphic feature found in karst landscapes where an underground river is visible from the surface within a sinkhole. In this feature, a spring emerges, then the discharge abruptly disappears into a sinkhole. The word fenster is German for 'window', as these features are windows into the karst landscape.
A ponor is a natural opening where surface water enters into underground passages; they may be found in karst landscapes where the geology and the geomorphology is typically dominated by porous limestone rock. Ponors can drain stream or lake water continuously or can at times work as springs, similar to estavelles. Morphologically, ponors come in forms of large pits and caves, large fissures and caverns, networks of smaller cracks, and sedimentary, alluvial drains.
Lost World Caverns, located just outside Lewisburg, West Virginia, is an underground natural series of caverns. In November 1973, the caverns were registered as a National Natural Landmark as they "feature terraced pedestal-like stalagmites, flowstone, curtains, rimstone, domepits, and waterfalls."
The Danube Sinkhole is an incipient underground stream capture in the Upper Danube Nature Park. Between Immendingen and Möhringen and also near Fridingen (Tuttlingen), the water of the Danube sinks into the riverbed in various places. The main sinkhole is next to a field named Brühl between Immendingen and Möhringen.
Kissingen Spring was a natural spring formerly flowing in Polk County, Southwest Florida. It was also a venue for recreation until it dried up in 1950. Hundreds of wells drilled into the Floridan Aquifer may have caused the demise of the springs. Its site is located near the northern end of Peace River, approximately 3/4 mile east of U.S. Highway 17 and 4 miles south of Florida SR 60 / south of Bartow.
Cedar Sink is a vertical-walled large depression, or sinkhole, in the ground, that is located in Edmonson County, Kentucky and contained within and managed by Mammoth Cave National Park. The sinkhole measures 300 feet (91.4 m) from the top sandstone plateau to the bottom of the sink and was caused by collapse of the surface soil. The landscape is karst topography, which means the region is influenced by the dissolution of soluble rocks. Sinkholes, caves, and dolines typically characterize these underground drainage systems. Cedar Sink has a bottom area of about 7 acres (2.8 ha) and has more fertile soil compared to the ridgetops.
Indiana Caverns is part of the Binkley Cave system near Corydon, Indiana.
The Zalomka is a karstic river in the southern part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and as part of the Neretva river system it is one of the largest sinking rivers in the country and Dinarides. It rises under the Morine plateau, near Brajićevići village in Gacko municipality, but also collects its upper course waters from Gatačko Polje.
In between November 2013 to 2017, more than 200 sinkholes were formed in the Armala area of Pokhara. The sinkholes were formed mostly in the paddy fields in the alluvial fan deposit. The sinkholes terrorised and displaced hundreds of local residents.
Year designated: 1972
38°32′14″N86°49′14″W / 38.53722°N 86.82056°W
| Authority control databases: National |
|---|
