Millions of people who visit Grand Canyon National Park each year stop at one of the park’s water stations. Some people stand on the rim and see the canyon for the first time, refilling their water bottles before continuing their journey. Others are far below, hiking through extreme heat, refilling reservoirs and dousing themselves with water to protect themselves from dehydration and heat stroke.
Its water comes from a single source. It’s Roaring Springs, a spring that gushes out of a cave on the North Rim. Hikers can hear and catch glimpses of spring from the North Kaibab Trail, but there is no trail directly leading to it. Roaring Springs provides water not only for park visitors but also for the plants, animals, and ecosystems that depend on it. As the region becomes hotter and drier, protecting this vital water source becomes increasingly important.
Researchers at Northern Arizona University’s School of Informatics, Computing, and Cybersystems are working to better understand how springs from Roaring Springs and other caves work. With the support of a new grant funded by Grand Canyon National Park, the team will expand its efforts to map these water systems and study how snowmelt connects to springs.
“Understanding where the water sinks is critical for the infrastructure, animals, plants, and other ecosystems that depend on these springs,” said Dr. Blase Lasala. student of ecoinformatics. “They’re like an oasis.”
Early discoveries of the project were recently made. scientific report.
Mapping the hidden caves of the Grand Canyon
Most people never enter the caves that feed the Grand Canyon’s springs. These are not open to the public and are often located far from established trails. As a result, much of what scientists know about them comes from specialized mapping projects.
For his doctoral research, Lasala collaborated with remote sensing expert Professor Temulen “Teki” Sankey to create detailed maps of several cave systems. The team used a mobile LIDAR scanner to create a high-resolution three-dimensional model that captured the cave’s walls, ceilings, passageways, and rooms in incredible detail.
Over 45 days, researchers, volunteers, and park staff documented more than 10 kilometers of underground passageways and crypts.
“I had no idea how big and long these caves were,” Sankey said. “We were able to create a very high-resolution 3D map, which is unique and novel from a remote sensing perspective. Grand Canyon caves have never been mapped in 3D like this.”
This work required a major logistical effort. Team members carried packs weighing up to 55 pounds, including rider equipment, and hiked to the secluded cave entrance, which could take two days to reach. Once inside, they clambered, rappelled, crawled, and even floated through flooded sections while recording the cave’s shape and fracture patterns.
These details are valuable because the formation of caves follows recognizable geological processes. The arrangement of passageways, cracks, and openings can reveal how water moves through the various rock formations beneath the canyon.
Follow the melting snow to Roaring Springs
The simplest explanation for where the water comes from is snowmelt from the earth’s surface, specifically the Kaibab Plateau.
A more difficult question is how that water moves underground before it emerges into springs like Roaring Springs.
The hot springs that flow from the cave are located within the Redwall and Muav limestone formations. Several other rock formations exist between these springs and the surface above them. Previous dye-tracing experiments conducted by the park have shown that water can move surprisingly quickly through this underground system.
Abe Springer, a professor in NAU’s School of Earth and Sustainability and a collaborator on the project, has been working with the park on dye-tracing research. In some tests, dye poured into sinkholes on the plateau traveled about 20 kilometers and appeared in springs in just a week.
Exactly how water moves underground remains unclear. Factors such as cracks, faults, rock permeability, and underground passages all affect the journey.
“In our paper research, we were able to uncover geological relationships between what we see at the surface and what we see hundreds and thousands of feet underground,” Sankey said.
“It’s like looking into a black box,” Lasala added. “We can see what’s coming in and what’s coming out, but it’s very difficult to quantify what’s going on there. Now that we know what patterns there are, we can actually correlate the data to changes in the spring over time.”
Water quality and pollution risks
Understanding these underground pathways is more than just a scientific curiosity. It also has practical implications for water quality and public safety.
The Grand Canyon’s largest springs are fed by karst systems, which Sankey likens to “Swiss cheese” because of the countless holes, channels, and openings in the rock. Water moves rapidly through these channels, leaving little opportunity for natural filtration.
This means that contaminants can also move quickly. Runoff from wildfire burn scars, bacteria, etc. Escherichia coli It is possible to enter the sinkhole connected to Roaring Springs Caverns and reach the water supply. If contamination is detected, park personnel may be required to temporarily suspend pump operation until the problem is resolved.
By identifying where water enters the system and tracking how it moves, researchers can help managers identify sources of contamination and reduce the risk of future disruptions.
New research on snowmelt and sinkholes
The next phase of the project is scheduled to begin in early 2026.
Lasala and Sankey plan to map sinkholes on both sides of the Grand Canyon, using airborne lidar surveys and satellite observations collected over decades to study snowpack and snowmelt patterns over the past 40 years.
Although much of the future research will focus on surface features, the researchers remain interested in exploring newly discovered caves if the opportunity arises.
The goal is to better understand the geological processes that influence sinkhole formation, river disappearance, and groundwater movement. The researchers plan to compare the patterns observed on the surface with those recorded inside the cave. This finding can also guide future dye-tracking experiments.
Snow melt is a particularly important focus because Arizona has seen its snowpack decrease over time, and the Grand Canyon region is following the same trend.
This project will create an extensive archive of environmental data and combine it with lidar and other imagery resources to improve our understanding of water systems across the region.
Why the findings matter beyond Arizona
Although this research directly benefits Grand Canyon National Park, its importance extends far beyond northern Arizona.
More than 1 billion people around the world depend on water from karst springs. Increasing scientists’ understanding of how water moves through these complex underground systems can help inform water management efforts globally.
The discovery could also prove valuable to Native American tribes living in or near the park.
“It’s interesting to find patterns that test hypotheses made over 50 years ago,” Lasala said. “We have all this great data right now, and we’re trying to combine it with other data to find something useful. There are a lot of places that can benefit from this kind of analysis.”
Impact of Dragon Bravo Fire on research
Researchers expect the Dragon Bravo fire to influence future observations, but they view it as another element to be incorporated into the study rather than an obstacle that changes the entire mission.
Asked how a fire could affect the project, LaSala and Sankey acknowledged that unexpected developments are common in scientific research.
“This is a new addition to our research,” Sankey said.
The fire’s impact on the Kaibab Plateau could change some of the environmental conditions researchers are monitoring. As the project continues, these changes will be incorporated into the analysis, and the team will assist parks in understanding the impact of the fires wherever possible.
