The twenty largest perennial springs of Kentucky were identified and ranked over a ten-year period. Since most large springs are not shown on topographic or geologic maps, ranked springs were primarily located from previous hydrogeologic surveys, field reconnaissance, and literature review. Spring flows, were ranked by minimum annual discharge, which ranged from 0.15-0.68 m~3/s. These springs are classified as 3rd Magnitude, based on the Meinzer (1923) discharge scale. Unit base flow (the ratio of minimum discharge to basin area) revealed diverse hydrogeologic yield of the karst spring group, ranging from 0.22-12.27 L/s/km~2, suggesting significant unattributed losses and gains. Most large springs are derived from classic fluviokarst basins draining well-developed karst of Mississippian-age limestones. However, one-third result from short stream or meander cutoffs of less than 5 km, which are not necessarily related to well-developed karst terrane. An index of karst basin development can be obtained by the ratio of subsurface flow length to total basin length.
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机译：肯塔基州的二十大多年期斯普林斯被识别并在十年内排名。由于地形或地质地图上未显示大多数大型弹簧，因此排名斯普林斯主要位于以前的水文地理调查，现场侦察和文献综述。弹簧流量，以最低年度排放量排名，范围为0.15-0.68 m〜3 / s。基于Meinzer（1923）放电量表，这些弹簧被归类为第三幅度。单位碱基流量（最小排放到盆地的比率）揭示了岩溶弹簧组的多样性水文产量，范围为0.22-12.27 L / S / km〜2，表明显着的未分配损失和收益。大多数大型泉水来自经典的FlyViokarst盆地排出明发达的密西西比亚石灰岩发达的岩石。然而，短的溪流或蜿蜒截止的三分之一的结果不到5公里，这不一定与发达的岩溶地区有关。喀斯特盆地开发指数可以通过地下流量长度与总盆长的比率获得。
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