Subterranean Phenomena 208 
A SUBTERRANEAN CUT-OFF AND OTHER SUBTERRANEAN PHE- 
NOMENA ALONG INDIAN CREEK, LAWRENCE 
COUNTY, INDIANA. 
CLYDE A. MALOTT. 
The drainage basin of Indian Creek in Monroe, Greene, Lawrence, 
and Martin counties, Indiana, offers a number of interesting physio- 
graphic phenomena. Indian Creek from its source in western Monroe 
County southwest of Bloomington to its entrance into East White River 
a few miles above Shoals in Martin County, traverses a sinuous route 
some 50 to 75 miles in length, though the direct distance is but little 
more than 25 miles. The valley in the upper portion is rather broad 
and lies on a limestone plain which is perched from 100 to 150 feet 
above the more deeply intrenched streams on either side of the basin. 
This condition of its upper portion has resulted in wholesale subter- 
ranean piracy, and some 15 square miles in area have been diverted 
from the surface route through Indian Creek to the more deeply in- 
trenched streams on either side... In the middle and lower portions of 
Indian Creek basin the valley is very tortuous and narrow. It is deeply 
set in a dissected plain, the narrow valley floor lying from 200 to 300 
feet below the preserved portions of the dissected plain. The upper 
parts of the valley sides are composed of clastic rocks belonging to the 
Chester series. These rocks often form benches with abrupt sides of 
massive sandstone facing the valley. The lower parts of the valley 
sides are composed of the so-called Mitchell limestone which is exposed 
in the steep, wall-like sides of the meander curves. Within the meander 
curves of the valley occur local sinkhole plains far below the dissected 
surface of the plain in which the valley is cut. Springs of considerable 
size enter the stream and furnish a large part of the perennial waters. 
Some of these springs are mineral springs, such as at Trinity Springs 
in Martin County. At one place a complex meander curve more than 
3 miles in length is in the process of being cut off through the develop- 
ment of subterranean drainage beneath the spur of upland across the 
narrow neck of the meander loop. It is with this feature that the 
present paper chiefly deals. 
The accompanying topographic sketch, Fig. 1, shows a small area 
of 4 square miles in western Lawrence County through which Indian 
Creek passes in a very sinuous route. The area lies in T. 5 N., R. 2 W. 
The village of Silverville lies a mile south of the area, and Armstrong 
station on the Bedford-Switz City Branch of the Monon Railway is 
about 1 mile north of the area. The area is about 9 miles west of 
Bedford. This locality has been mapped in particular to show the 
developing subterranean cut-off in Indian Creek. The locality also is 
1See the Bloomington, Indiana, Quadrangle. Also see, Beede, J. W., “The Cycle of 
Subterranean Drainage as Illustrated in the Bloomington, Indiana, Quadrangle,” Proc. 
Ind. Acad. Sci. for 1910, pp. 107-111. 
