Dissolution caves of Mississippi

The purpose of this project was to distinguish between the karst and pseudokarst caves throughout Mississippi, create an inventory and survey of representative caves and karst features, identify the geology of the rocks hosting the caves, and produce a GIS-based digital karst map. Mississippi is not known for its karst features, yet there are three distinct regions that contain dissolution caves: (1) Paleozoic (Mississippian) limestone; (2) Mesozoic carbonate units; and (3) Cenozoic limestone. There are 44 known caves within the state based on past documentation, however they are not differentiated between karst or pseudokarst features. This study located and mapped 20 caves, of which 18 were karst caves and two were pseudokarst caves. Four of these caves were newly discovered karst caves, increasing the state total to 48; however two karst caves were connected, which makes the final state total 47 caves. There were 28 caves that were not surveyed.