Abstract
The Greenbrier Karst is formed on a roughly triangular exposure of Mississippian-age Greenbrier Limestone that extends 90 km NNE to SSW in Pocahontas, Greenbrier, and Monroe Counties, West Virginia. The geologic setting is conducive to the development of long caves but not deep caves. Within the Greenbrier Karst are 24 caves with surveyed lengths greater than 5 km of which nine have lengths greater than 20 km for a total of 500 km of cave passage plus many smaller caves. Caves are fragments of conduit system with a fractal length distribution skewed toward long caves. The surface karst consists primarily of dolines and blind valleys. The area is surrounded by clastic rock mountains which provide many surface streams that sink at the limestone contact. The result is a patchwork of large underground drainage systems each discharging through a large spring. Analysis of the profiles of active surface streams and abandoned stream beds gives some insight into the developmental history of the karst.
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White, W.B., White, E.L. (2018). Karst Geomorphology. In: White, W. (eds) Caves and Karst of the Greenbrier Valley in West Virginia. Cave and Karst Systems of the World. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65801-8_4
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