WCP Survey Section

Inventory

The goal of cave inventory is to collect geologic, hydrologic, biological, speleological, and cultural information relative to cave survey data. The long-term goal is to gather this basic inventory information into a relational database as an aid to researchers in Williams Canyon. I have included a sample, filled-in inventory book, and a blank form that people can print out to use.

How do you collect the data?

The inventory data is collected as you sit at a survey station and as you travel from station to station. In general, most of the features you would see walking from station A1 to A2 would be tied to station A2 unless they were very close to A1. The inventory person examines the floors, walls, and ceiling for features listed in the inventory book and writes down the station numbers on the line next to the feature listing.

Some groups of features will have a listing for every station. For example, every station has a floor and therefore should have something filled in for floor type (i.e. bedrock, loose dirt, etc.). A station can have more than one floor type. Every station will have a minimum size. This is the smallest size it took to get from the previous station to the current station. Each station has only one minimum size.

How do you fill out the forms?

I have included an example of a filled-in inventory form for reference. Because the types of features generally stays the same for a string of stations, you can just use a dash to indicate a string of stations (i.e. A1-13). If there is a break in stations, separate the list with commas (i.e. A1-13, 16-18, 22). If you inventory a set of side shots, make sure you indicate the station designation as well as the letters (i.e. A1-4, A4A-C, D,A6-10). It should always be obvious what the survey designation is when you put it in the book.

Features of the Williams Canyon Inventory:

In the future, I plan to have photographs of many of the speleologic features listed in the inventory. For now, I will give some basic descriptions of most of the features (I assume everyone can identify stalactites, stalagmites, flowstone, etc.).

Breakdown- breakdown can range from gravel-sized pieces of rocks to house-sized boulders. If a rock is too large to move, consider it large breakdown. If it is very small and obviously rounded by stream action, put it in the gravel category.

Calcified Sediment- this is dirt or breakdown that has been cemented together by calcite, but not necessarily coated in actual flowstone.

Gravel-small, rounded rocks ranging from golf-ball to tennis-ball sized. If you are comfortable identifying the rock type, go ahead, but don't stress over it if you are not.

Chert- In Williams Canyon chert can be seen as knobs of rock sticking out of the limestone walls. If you only see scattered individual knobs mark the feature in nodules, if you see distinct lines of these features, mark it under layered chert.

Paleofill- This is the reddish clay and other fill that can be found completely filling some cave passages, joints, and vugs in Williams Canyon. If you can't see any large pieces of rock within the red clay, mark it as layered paleofill. If you see blocks of rock in red clay, mark it as clay matrix breccia. If you see angular rocks in a calcite or solid rock matrix, mark it as calcite-matrix breccia.

Glauconite-This is a distinct blue-green clay layer that appears at the contact between the Manitou Formation and the Williams Canyon Formation. There are usually two or three thin (<2cm) layers of this clay in the meter-thick zone that marks the contact.

Iron Oxide- Reddish, yellow, or orange staining on the bedrock walls. In rare cases, you may see a reddish crust on the wall.

Manganese- Generally, these appear as dendrites on the cave walls or ceiling that are up to 2mm in diameter. At quick glance, these look like small black dots on the bedrock, but are dendritic (think lichen).

Formation- Most of the caves in Williams Canyon are formed in the Manitou limestone, but some caves to penetrate the upper units. The Williams Canyon limestone looks very similar to the Manitou except that is is more thinly-bedded. Look for the glauconite layer (described above) to make sure you are in this unit. Above the Williams Canyon formation is the Leadville limestone. Unlike the rest of the state, the Leadville in Williams Canyon is entirely a calcite-matrix breccia. Look for angular pieces of blue limestone in a tan-to-buff matrix. Only the upper parts of Cave of the Winds and Narrows Cave have been shown to reach this unit.

Fossils- I do not expect everyone doing inventory in the cave to be an invertebrate paleontologist. If you do not know what a gastropod (snail), cephalopod (ammonoid, nautoloid), or brachiopod is, don't worry. Just mark the station on the line marked "yes."

Signatures- Use your best judgment as to whether these are historic or modern. Obviously, spray paint is modern and old-style script pencil signatures with dates are historic.

Commercialization features- Modern features are those that are being used for tours today, including the infrastructure at Cave of the Winds and the cargo net in Manitou Cave. Historic features would include the rock wall at Cave of the Boards, the old Grands Entrance, and the handrail at Manitou Cave.

Aragonite- Most of the aragonite formations in Williams Canyon are in the form of aragonite helictites, small bushes, and thin coatings of needles on cave walls. If the wall has a thin, spiky coating it is probably aragonite.

Spar- Most of the spar in the canyon consists of chenille or pool spar in old rimstone pools. It can also occur as large dogtooth crystals within the bedrock, although this is rare.

Ripple Marks- these generally occur in the loose sediment fill, especially on the route from the Moonglow Room to Spring Canyon in Narrows Cave. They are found only rarely in the caves and give us a good idea as to some of the hydrologic history of the cave, so be careful not to track through them.

Scallops- these are the large asymmetrical scoops in the bedrock walls that indicate flow direction and velocity of water that once moved through the cave. The steep side is always indicates the downstream direction, but it is often difficult to determine the steep side. If at all in doubt, just mark the station in the inventory and don't worry about the flow direction.

What if you don't know what something is?

I have included a full blank page in the back of the inventory forms so that you can describe the feature in detail or make a sketch (be sure to include a scale if you are sketching it).