Karstbase Bibliography Database

Solutional sculpturing of cave walls can provide information on both the direction and discharge of water flow in a cave passage. Their asymmetry indicates the direction of ground water flow and their wavelength is inversely proportional to the flow velocity. Laboratory and field investigations have enabled the calculation of mean flow velocity from scallop wavelength data and thus the calculation of discharge at the time of scallop formation. Other hydraulic parameters may also be estimated from scallop measurements.