"According to Dr. Phillip Kemmerly, professor of geology at Austin Peay State University, Clarksville sits in one of the most interesting areas of karst topography in the world.
Karst topography describes a landscape abundant in sinkholes, disappearing streams and caves.
Clarksville is part of a region known to geologists as the Western Highland Rim Plain. This region includes northern middle Tennessee and extends into western Kentucky where it is called the Pennyroyal Plain and Mammoth Cave Plateau. The only region in the world with more karst features is Slovenia in southern Europe.
Kemmerly divulges that of karst features, sinkholes pose the greatest risk to new and existing construction sites.
“A sinkhole is like a wide-mouth, funnel shaped depression,” says Kemmerly. “This funnel is connected to a Swiss cheese-like system of underground channels that run through the bedrock.” Sinkholes are created when the surface collapses after supporting rock is dissolved and sediment passes through the channels in the bedrock. (...)"
Full text: TheLeaf
Karst topography describes a landscape abundant in sinkholes, disappearing streams and caves.
Clarksville is part of a region known to geologists as the Western Highland Rim Plain. This region includes northern middle Tennessee and extends into western Kentucky where it is called the Pennyroyal Plain and Mammoth Cave Plateau. The only region in the world with more karst features is Slovenia in southern Europe.
Kemmerly divulges that of karst features, sinkholes pose the greatest risk to new and existing construction sites.
“A sinkhole is like a wide-mouth, funnel shaped depression,” says Kemmerly. “This funnel is connected to a Swiss cheese-like system of underground channels that run through the bedrock.” Sinkholes are created when the surface collapses after supporting rock is dissolved and sediment passes through the channels in the bedrock. (...)"
Full text: TheLeaf
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