The Gemorphology of the Bonnechere Caves

Abstract

This paper deals with the specific problem of the formation ot the Bonnechere Caves, and the more universal problem of scallop or flute formation. The Bonnechere Caves have been studied in two previous papers, which speculate on their formation, but no detailed field work has been done that deals with all the significant variables that affected their formation. The problem of scallop formation has remained unexplained in its entirety, and there have been no large bodies of data collected to analyse the effects of different variables on their development. The purpose of this paper was to study these two problems through detailed field work and to arrive at some concrete conclusions concerning cave formation and scallop formation which could be substantiated by significant data. Because of the uniqueness of each cave system, it is very difficult to make any generalizations about all cave systems from the observations of one single system -- except those generalizations which border on intuition. However, a solution or partial solution for the scallop problem would have much wider applications because this feature is common to practically all caves and deals with the basic mechanics of flow. The purpose is not to explain the actual physics of scallop formation which the author is not equipped to do, but rather to discover correlations between the size of scallops and the variables involved in their formation and then use the scallop size as an index of these variables. In this way the problem is a geographical one since the main concern is to apply correlations over space. The author's background prevent detailed discussion of the many properties of variables involved in the development of caves. However, since the process of cave development is the primary issue, the role of the variables in the development of the cave is the main concern rather than the intrinsic nature of the variable itself. Only that degree of detail which leads to an understanding of the role of each variable in the whole framework is necessary in any geographical study.