Subterranean Drainage Routes of Lost River, Orange County, Indiana
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Abstract
The upper Lost River water shed consists of a drainage net of sinking streams that aretributary to the mainstream through subterranean channels and intermittent surface flood water routes.The subterranean routes developed during early to middle Pleistocene time and beneath atopographic surface of Tertiary age. Material eroded from the Mitchell Plain during middle to late Pleistocene time alluviated the subterranean systems. Flood water from the sinking streams overflows through higher relic surface and subterranean channels. Fluorescein was used to trace the subterranean routes within the 163 square mile to pographic drainage basin to their outlets. Subsurface water from a portion of the basin that lies on the Mitchell Plain, about 139 square miles,was traced along the trend of the westward dipping bed rock and descends 100 to 150 feet to resurgeat the rise of Lost River and the Orangeville Rise. Drainage in a 14.5 square mile area in the Crawford Up land along the South Fork of Stamper Creek is diverted down dipsouth-westward beneath the topographic divide into Lick Creek which lies about 80 feet below the sinks. Drainage from Dry Branch, a 9.4 square mile karst valley in the Crawford Upland, follows the strike and descends 90 feet to the Orangeville Rise.
