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Karst and the USGS

Welcome to the USGS Karst Website. This website presents information on USGS research on karst aquifers, which are a vital ground-water resource in the United States. Here you can learn about past and current USGS karst research, with information on ongoing studies, real-time data, publications, and key contacts for major karst areas. Click on an aquifer on the map below, or select one from a list of aquifers.

Byrds Mill Spring. USGS Hydrologist Scott Christenson collects a water sample from Oklahoma’s largest spring. (Photo by Noel Osborn, Ok. Water Resources Board) Read more about the Arbuckle-Simpson aquifer...
A "blue-hole" spring, Orangeville Rise, Indiana. Sixty feet in diameter. (Photo by Chuck Taylor) Read more about Paleozoic karst aquifers of the Midwest...
Barton Spring Pool, Austin, Texas. A public swimming pool visited by over 300,000 people annually. The pool is filled by discharge from Main Barton Spring, and is a centerpiece of political and environmental dialog. (Photo courtesy of the City of Austin) Read more about the Edwards Balcones Fault Zone aquifer...
Karst conduit in a borehole, Cumberland County, PA. A still-frame from a video taken from a camera lowered into a borehole in karst terrane. A conduit appears in this photo as a distinctive void space, which likely transmits large volumes of water through the aquifer rapidly. (Photo by Randy Conger) Read more about karst aquifers of the Valley and Ridge, Piedmont, and Blue Ridge province...
Vendome Well. A flowing artesian well in the Chickasaw National Recreation Area. A water sample from Vendome Well was determined to be 9,000 years old by carbon-14 dating. (Photo by Scott Christenson) Read more about the Arbuckle-Simpson aquifer...

This website has an inventory of karst real-time and water-quality data available from the USGS. You can browse and search for reports and articles authored by USGS researchers, and find links for other karst resources. There is also an overview of karst and its properties.

This website is maintained by members of the USGS Karst Interest Group, whose (KIG), who investigate karst across the United States.

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URL: http://water.usgs.gov/ogw/karst/
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Page Last Modified: Jul 6 2009