Illingheimer cave
| Illingheimer cave
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| Location: | Sauerland , Germany | |
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Geographic location: |
51 ° 18 '7.2 " N , 7 ° 57' 43.2" E | |
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| Discovery: | 1851 | |
| Overall length: | approx. 120 meters (explored so far) | |
| Level difference: | 61 meters | |
| Particularities: | After the entrance fell in the 19th century, the cave was rediscovered in 2012 | |
The Illing Heimer cave is located east of Amecke in the city of Sundern (Sauerland) in covered with deciduous forest limestone -Bergrücken Sümpfel in a small former quarry.
geology
The Illingheimer Höhle is located in the limestone of the Mississippium (formerly known as the Lower Carboniferous). The Mississippium began geochronologically about 358.9 million years ago and ended about 323.2 million years ago. The cave is in the Hellefeld limestone . The Hellefeld limestone occurs in the area around Amecke, Sundern and Westenfeld in numerous larger and smaller isolated limestone deposits in limestone lenses. These calcareous lenses are often only a few hundred meters long and wide. The Mount Sümpfel is such a calcareous lens.
Cave description
From the entrance a narrow crevice leads into the depths of the cave, either diagonally or vertically. The end of the cave is 61 m below the entry level. At the beginning of 2015 the explored length of the cave was 120 m, with the deepest point of the cave covered with rock rubble.
In the cave there are stalactite formations such as button sinter , large-scale wall sintering and smaller sinter flags. During investigations, fragments of bones from Ice Age animals were found.
Discovery story
The entrance to the Illingheim cave was uncovered in 1851 during work in a small quarry. In 1855 two articles and in 1871 an article in scientific journals were published, which describe the cave in reports on caves in the Sauerland. After 1871 it is mentioned several times in the literature that the Illingheim Cave had collapsed. Between 1975 and around 1990 there were several attempts to find the cave.
From 2010, new attempts by members of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Höhle und Karst Sauerland / Hemer began to find the cave. In February 2012, with an outside temperature of –14 ° C, a 3 cm area of moist earth was found on the floor of a former quarry, while the surrounding area was frozen as hard as rock. It was assumed that this was caused by rising warmer cave air, as there is a constant temperature of 8 to 9 ° C in caves in the Sauerland. After a few fist-sized stones had been cleared aside, a clearly perceptible flow of warm air began. In October 2012, a 4 × 7 m and 3 m deep search trench was dug over seven days, and the cave entrance was found. In April 2013, a 3 m high shaft was built from well rings above the cave entrance up to the level of the quarry floor and a steel door was installed at the top for safety. The search trench was then backfilled except for the safety shaft.
See also
literature
- Heinz-Werner Weber: The underworld of Amecke - history of a lost cave. Sunderner Heimatblätter 2015, 25th episode: 20–24