Woodville Karst Plain facts for kids
The Woodville Karst Plain is a special area in Florida, U.S., covering about 450 square miles (1,165 square kilometers). It stretches from Tallahassee all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. This area is known as a karst plain, which means its ground is made of soft rock like limestone. Over time, water has dissolved this rock, creating amazing features like caves, sinkholes, and underground rivers. A natural ridge called the Cody Scarp separates parts of this plain.
This unique plain is home to many large springs, which are places where underground water flows out onto the surface. Some of these are "first magnitude springs," meaning they have a huge amount of water flowing out every day. One of the most famous features here is the Wakulla-Leon Sinks Cave System. This is the longest underwater cave system ever explored in the United States, stretching for about 32 miles (51 kilometers)! It's also one of the top 100 longest caves in the entire world.
The Woodville Karst Plain is also special because of the rare animals that live there. It's home to five different types of troglobites. These are amazing creatures that live their entire lives in dark caves and have adapted to this unique environment. Examples include the Woodville Karst cave crayfish and the Swimming Florida cave isopod. You can also find interesting sinkholes and natural bridges at the Leon Sinks Geological Area.
Exploring the Wakulla-Leon Sinks Cave System
The Wakulla cave is like a giant underground maze. It has many connected passages, or conduits, that look like the branches of a tree (this is called a dendritic network). About 12 miles (19 kilometers) of these passages have been carefully explored and mapped by divers.
These passages are usually long and tube-shaped, staying about 300 feet (91 meters) deep. However, sometimes these tubes open up into larger rooms or chambers. The biggest passage goes south from the main spring entrance for over 3.8 miles (6.1 kilometers). Four other important passages, including the one from Leon Sinks, connect to this main passage. Most of these connecting passages have been fully explored by expert cave divers.
Connecting the Caves
A very exciting discovery happened on December 15, 2007. Members of the Woodville Karst Plain Project, a group dedicated to exploring and protecting this area, successfully connected the Wakulla cave system with the Leon Sinks cave system. This amazing connection created the single longest underwater cave system in the United States. It also made it the sixth longest underwater cave system in the world, with a total of 32 miles (51 kilometers) of surveyed passages. This discovery showed just how vast and connected the underground world of the Woodville Karst Plain truly is.
