FIBORN KARST ORIGINS PROJECT

        The Fiborn Karst Origins Project was authorized by the Fiborn Karst Preserve Committee in October 1998 and will be under the direction of Rane Curl (science committee chair of the Preserve). Its purpose is to focus attention on questions surrounding why there is a karst drainage system with a group of caves, including the longest known in Michigan, in the area of the Fiborn Karst Preserve, but no similar karst area known elsewhere in Michigan.  The project will also address the question of the age of the karst system and several apparent puzzles such as how it could have formed with conduits of the present size in the brief period (ca. 5,000 years) following the last retreat of the glaciers at the end of the Wisconsin glaciation, and the later change of the climate to cool and moist (as is currently believed). Previous studies of the rate of cave development suggest that a much greater time would be required for conduits of the size of those in the Preserve to form.

        The project will include studies to determine the likely configuration of the adjacent bog that supplied the water that dissolved out the caves, the overland drainage routes prior to the piracy of water flow by the development of the karst hydrological system, and the nature and origin of the acidic substances required to dissolve limestone and dolostone at a sufficient rate. A source of unusual acidity would contribute to explaining the apparently rapid development of the caves.

        Currently, water chemistry studies are being conducted. The water now flowing into the caves is near neutral - not conducive to rapid cave development. The puzzle remains.

        There are opportunities in the overall project for individual studies on a variety of subjects. These include continuing the ungoing determination of water chemistry to seek clues to chemical factors that may have played a role, dating and determining the paleo-acidity of the bog, mapping the configuration of the past and present surface streams and also the areas where surface streams drop into the karst system to learn how the bog or bog waters were situated and where water once flowed, and directly measuring the rate of wall retreat in a cave.

        Interested persons should contact Rane Curl via rcurl@cyberspace.org, or by mail to the MKC office.