Bulletin of the National Speleological Society - ISSN 0146-9517
Volume 28 Number 3: 109-110 - July 1966

A publication of the National Speleological Society

Introduction to Limestone Hydrology
George W. Moore

Abstract

At the symposium on limestone hydrology held in Berkeley in 1965, the following ideas were presented: The flow of groundwater in limestone is largely independent of the flow in surface rivers and in surface drainage basins. Flow averages about eight meters per year in the Floriadan aquifer. Solution channels initiate along joints and partings. Before the channels are large enough for water to move in them under nuormal hydraulic gradients, the water may move by pumping oscillations from earth tides and distant earthquarkes. After channel flow is established, solution is most rapid in a narrow zone just below the water table where downward-percolating water mixes with ground water, because, although both waters may be saturated with respect to calcite, the mixture is usually undersaturated, owing to a nonlinear relation between calcite solubility and the partial pressure of carbon dioxide.

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