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240 meters (790 feet) long, 40 meters (130 feet) wide, and 13 meters (43 feet) high. The cave possesses an intimate hydrologic connection with nearby
Mammoth Cave. Groundwater dye tracing has shown that water flowing from Mammoth Cave's Hawkins River emerges downstream at a river within Martin Ridge Cave. The unexplored section between Mammoth Cave and the Whigpistle Cave System may be underwater and could require
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Surveyed so far to over 65.8 kilometers (40.9 mi), the
Whigpistle Cave System is ranked as third-longest in Kentucky, 11th-longest in the United States, and 47th-longest in the world. The cave also contains what is likely the largest cave chamber in Kentucky, the Big Womb. The Big Womb measures
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Efforts continue to explore and map the cave. The
Whigpistle Cave System is separated from Mammoth Cave by a deep valley, though a human connection may be possible at the caves' lowest elevation passageways. Currently, at least a one-kilometer (3,300-foot) gap exists between the two caves' closest
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graduate students Alan
Glennon and Jon Jasper discovered a new entrance and eight miles (12.5 km) of cave passage. Their exploration revealed connections to Jackpot in June 1996 and Whigpistle in August 1996.
50:. The system, composed of the interconnected Whigpistle, Martin Ridge, and Jackpot Caves, has been mapped to over 55 kilometers (34 mi), and is currently the United States' thirteenth-longest cave.
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In 1994, explorers from the James Cave
Project discovered Jackpot Cave to the east of the Whigpistle entrance. Their efforts mapped over three miles (5 km) of new cave.
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Application of
Morphometric Relationships to Active Flow Networks within the Mammoth Cave Watershed, M.Sc. Thesis, Bowling Green: Western Kentucky University, 87 p.
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under the supervision of park hydrologist Jim
Quinlan in an effort to better understand the hydrology of Mammoth Cave's watershed.
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The original entrance to the system, Whigpistle Cave, was discovered by Rick
Schwartz in 1976. Mapping was initiated by the
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Taylor, R.L. (1979). Discovery in
Whigpistle Cave, Kentucky, The Ozarks' Underground, vol. 1, pp. 4–7.
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245:"Narrative of the Exploration and Survey of the Martin Ridge Cave System, Edmonson County, Kentucky"
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to determine whether a traversable physical connection is possible.
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253:Groves, C.G. (1998). The Martin Ridge Cave System,
137:. Archived from the original on April 21, 2006
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195:. Archived from the original on May 15, 2006
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115:List of longest caves in the United States
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312:Landforms of Edmonson County, Kentucky
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110:List of caves in the United States
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27:Cave system in the United States
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191:Gulden, Bob (July 11, 2011).
133:Gulden, Bob (July 11, 2011).
88:Western Kentucky University
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213:: CS1 maint: unfit URL (
155:: CS1 maint: unfit URL (
255:Cave Research Foundation
18:Martin Ridge Cave System
243:Glennon, J.A. (2001).
193:"Worlds Longest Caves"
32:Whigpistle Cave System
60:National Park Service
283:37.1196°N 86.1279°W
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135:"USA Longest Caves"
95:Current exploration
307:Caves of Kentucky
288:37.1196; -86.1279
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66:Significance
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40:Mammoth Cave
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257:Newsletter.
181:Groves 1998
169:Taylor 1979
79:Connections
73:cave diving
34:is a large
317:Wild caves
301:Categories
274:86°07′40″W
271:37°07′11″N
237:References
44:U.S. state
121:Footnotes
86:In 1996,
54:Discovery
42:, in the
209:cite web
199:7 August
151:cite web
104:See also
48:Kentucky
141:24 July
38:near
248:from
215:link
201:2011
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143:2018
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