Karst is a type of landscape where the dissolving of the bedrock has created sinkholes, sinking streams, caves, springs, and other characteristic features. Most karst was formed as carbonate bedrock - limestone, dolomite, or marble - dissolved by mildly acidic waters over thousands of years. Much of this process took place below ground, forming networks of interconnected caves. Most of the state’s Karst is found in Virginia's Valley and Ridge Province.

Complex underground drainage networks in karst commonly extend over large areas and beneath surface drainage divides. Precipitation enters these groundwater systems both by infiltration through soils developed over carbonate bedrock and by runoff into features such as sinkholes. Once underground, these 'karst waters' flow through networks of caves, and combine to emerge at springs. Karst hydrologists undertake the tricky business of mapping connections between these features to define 'karst watersheds', which typically refer to a particular spring or cave stream.

About The Speaker:

Wil Orndorff, a native of the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, grew up looking for caves on the family farm and adjacent abandoned quarry. Introduced to formal caving work at the age of 18, his interest in caves, karst waters, and geology grew into both a career and a life-long passion. With a bachelor’s degree from Johns Hopkins and a masters in geology from Virginia Tech focusing on Appalachian tectonics in hand, Wil entered the professional karst world as a self-employed consultant performing karst analyses of the potential impacts of a proposed high voltage power line corridor on karst springs and bat habitat along its path.

Becoming Virginia’s Karst Protection Coordinator became Wil’s career, and afforded him the opportunity to do the work he loved, protecting the resources he cared about. The nature of the job turned Wil into a jack of all trades karst who wears many hats: geologist, hydrologist, conservationist, educator, explorer, and, increasingly, biologist. His work has resulted in the establishment of two natural area preserves protecting significant caves, and additions of several tracts containing significant caves to existing preserves. Through the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation’s environmental project review, Wil has helped to avoid or mitigate impacts to hundreds of caves with the help of the Virginia Speleological Survey, with whom he is a director at large in his spare time.

Wil is the 2019 Recipient of the Karst Award from Karst Waters Institute. He lives in Blacksburg, Virginia with his wife Zenah.

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