EBBING AND FLOWING SPRING - Rogersville, TN
Posted by: 
vhasler
N 36° 25.546 W 082° 57.328
17S E 324700 N 4032950
This spring is one of only two known to have a cyclical flow pattern which increases and falls over a 2 hour, 47 minute period.
Waymark Code: WM9ZM5
Location: Tennessee, United States
Date Posted: 10/22/2010
Views: 3
Left on this road to EBBING AND FLOWING SPRING, 1 m. The basin, six or eight feet deep, fills slowly. At intervals of approximately two and a half hours it overflows. At full flow the spring produces about 500 gallons of clear water a minute. When the water reaches its lowest ebb, it suddenly begin to stir slightly; then within eight or ten minutes it is flowing strongly. For a few minutes it holds this
heavy flow, and begins to ebb again.
----- TENNESSEE - A Guide to the State (third printing 1949).
As an engineer, I have thought how this observed phenomena could be occuring and realized that a siphon was involved. The hillside above the spring has a large cavern space which is continually filling with water from rain or other underground flow. From this cavern, there is a path with an upward, then downward bend which then continues to the spring outlet at the ground level. Water fills the cavern until its liquid level is higher than the top of the exiting bend. A siphon results which quickly pulls the water out of the cavern until air breaks the vacuum. Therefore, flows of a trickle to a gush are observed in a regular cycle.