Keyhole passage (Winding Way, Mammoth Cave, Kentucky, USA) 10

            Keyhole passages in caves have a distinctive cross-section shape - they consist of an upper portion that is relatively wide and a lower portion that is narrow.

By itself, the upper portion is a tubular passage.  Tubes are wider than tall and form in the phreatic zone - at & below the water table.  They can have an elliptical shape but are often tapered/pointed laterally.  Tubular passages form by slow dissolution of limestone by slightly acidic water in an ancient underground stream or river.

The lower portion of a keyhole passage is a canyon passage.  Canyons are taller than wide and form in the vadose zone - above the water table - as water from ancient subsurface streams slowly dissolved limestone.

Seen here is the most famous keyhole passage in Mammoth Cave, Kentucky, the longest known cave on Earth, with 426 known and mapped miles as of March 2024.  This is Winding Way, also known as Narrow Crevice or Fat Man's Misery and Tall Man's Agony.  The tube at top formed first, in the phreatic zone.  Then, local base level dropped (= the Green River, which runs through Mammoth Cave park), resulting in downcutting and the development of a canyon below the tube.

Winding Way is located between Black Snake Avenue and Great Relief Hall at Level D in the Mammoth Cave system.  It can be seen during the 2 hour, 2 mile Historic Tour.  A gentleman got stuck here in the 1840s, briefly ("shift happens").  In modern times, a pregnant lady was stuck in Winding Way, but was freed with help from other tourists.

Stratigraphy: Fredonia Member, Ste. Genevieve Limestone, upper Middle Mississippian

Locality: terminus of Tall Man's Agony portion of Winding Way, Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky
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(accessed with park permission)

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Taken on: March 12, 2024

Tags:

Winding

Way

passage

passages

Mammoth

Cave

Ridge

National

Park

Kentucky

Tall

Man's

Agony

Ste.

Genevieve

Limestone

Mississippian « less

Sets appears in: • Geology, History, Archaeology, Biology of Mammoth Cave National Park (Kentucky, USA) • Kentucky Rocks, Minerals, Fossils more » • Keyhole passages (Mammoth Cave, Kentucky, USA) • Mississippian Rocks, Minerals, Fossils « less

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