Big thing shaft cave

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Big thing shaft cave

Cross-section of the visited parts, as of January 2014.

Cross-section of the visited parts, as of January 2014.
Location: Bavaria , Germany
Height : 1843  m
Geographic
location: 		47 ° 41 '53.8 "  N , 12 ° 58' 59.6"  E Coordinates: 47 ° 41 '53.8 "  N , 12 ° 58' 59.6"  E
Giant thing shaft cave (Bavaria)
Big thing shaft cave
Cadastral number: 1339/336
Type: Shaft cave
Discovery: 1996, research started in 2002
Overall length: 22.4 km (as of January 2020)
Level difference: -1149 m
Particularities: deepest and longest cave in Germany
Speleologist in the entrance doline of the cave

The giant thing shaft cave in Untersberg in the Berchtesgaden Alps in the Bavarian municipality of Bischofswiesen on the border between Germany and Austria ( Salzburg ) was discovered in autumn 1996 by the Bad Cannstatt Association for Cave Research . With a measured depth of 1149 meters and 22.4 kilometers in length, it is currently the deepest and longest known cave in Germany. The name goes back to the astonished exclamation “This is a huge thing!” When the cave was discovered.

The cave has been identified by the Bavarian State Office for the Environment (LfU) as a geoscientifically valuable geotope (geotope number: 172H006).

Characteristic

The karst cave was created by dissolving the limestone and is “with its system of faults and its multi-storey structure a prime example of the formation of caves in the Northern Limestone Alps”. Large amounts of sediment indicate cave formation processes caused by the Ice Age .

Immediately after entering the karst plateau of the Untersberg massif at an altitude of around 1843 meters, a series of shafts leads 350 meters down vertically. Here, at an altitude of 1400  m , at which the cave reaches a first horizontal level, a stream flows through a narrow canyon passage all year round , which is followed by numerous shaft steps. The stream, known as the collector , is fed by numerous feeders, mostly from high chimneys . After another series of shafts about 450 meters deep, a branched horizontal level extends. The creek flowing through the cave leads through several inlets at this level, significantly more water than at the upper level. From here, several shaft and horizontal series lead both in the length and in the depth of the cave to the currently known depth of 1148 meters below the entry point. The members of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Höhlenforschung Bad Cannstatt eV assume that the cave is significantly longer than can currently be proven by measurements. These assumptions are based on the strong cave wind at a depth of 900 m and are confirmed by radon measurements , which indicate independent wind movements and air exchange with the atmosphere, for which the previously known entrance "only plays a subordinate role".

The cave includes several waterfalls and a 30 meter long lake that can only be crossed in a rubber dinghy. Especially when the snow melts (until the end of June) and storms, the entire cave is at great risk of flooding, parts of the cave are then completely flooded. There is also a risk of ice and rock fall in the entrance section. The temperature is between 1.5 ° C and 5 ° C all year round and the humidity is almost one hundred percent. In a chamber at a depth of 720 m there are stalactites that are "completely covered with a thin layer of fine sediment ( silt )".

Like most of the plateau, the cave system very likely drains its water to the north of the Untersberg , presumably via the Fürstenbrunn spring cave in the Salzburg municipality of Grödig , about four kilometers away ; this connection could not yet be traced directly. A cave that was formerly traversed by a cave stream stretches towards the source cave with a strong cave wind . It is assumed that these, together with the Kolowrat Cave and the wind holes, form a cave system that is at least 70 km long and runs through the entire mountain, but the connecting caves are mostly under water.

perpetration

When the cave was discovered by Hermann Sommer and Ulrich Meyer in 1996, it initially went unnoticed; it was not researched until 2002. First surfers and other developers who contributed to the exploration of the giant thing shaft cave in Untersberg were Lars Bohg, Jürgen Kühlwein, Anja and Thomas Matthalm, Ulrich Meyer, Marcus Preißner and Johann Westhauser, and from 2004 Florian Schwarz and Wolfgang Zillig. In 2003 the first bivouac was set up at a depth of 350 m, in 2005 more at 500 m and 700 m depth, the fourth followed in 2006 at a depth of 850 m, and five in the following year. A cave link communication system has been used since 2010 . This allows text messages to be exchanged using a combination of different radio technologies. While antennas grounded in the cave transmit the signal via relay stations, the surface station transmits the message to the cellular network. This is useful, for example, to receive current weather data. The cave explorers, who go into the cave several times a year, usually four or five people, spend the night in bivouacs and are sometimes "several days' journey away from the surface" on their own. The exploration is difficult because of deep shafts in the course of the corridor that can only be overcome with technical climbing and the great distance and depth.

Until May 2014 less than a dozen people had entered the cave, the only known access in the hall number 94 of the district bishop Reported forest was kept secret. It is a "technically demanding shaft and water cave from the first meter [...]", which in May 2014 had nine kilometers of fixed ropes in shafts and canyons. Between the start of research in 2002 and May 2014, 19.2 kilometers of corridor length to a depth of 1148 meters below the entrance were measured. In the cave, research on cave formation and hydrology is carried out in cooperation with various universities . Data on “water quality, runoff dynamics and the entry of dusts and sediments into the high mountain karst” are collected, which is relevant for the drinking water supply in Salzburg .

As a result of the rescue operation in June 2014, Bavaria's Interior Minister Herrmann announced on June 19, 2014 that in future the inspection should only be possible in exceptional cases for research work. Due to the threat of “risk tourism”, the entrance to the cave was closed, and only individual permits are granted if there is a “legitimate interest” and if both physically and professionally qualified.

Accident of the cave explorer Johann Westhauser

Entrance to the cave, rescue of the injured

In June 2014, the cave researcher Johann Westhauser was seriously injured in the head in a rockfall at a depth of around 950 meters, about 6.5 km from the manhole, and suffered a traumatic brain injury . One of his companions stayed with him in the cave after the injury, while the other companion left to get help. The rescue turned out to be extremely difficult due to the complicated cave structure, required five days of preparation time and, with the help of hundreds of helpers from five nations, took another six days. The rescue operation, which was referred to as the "Chapter of Alpine Rescue History", received international reports.

By November 3, 2018, around a ton of material and waste from the 2014 rescue operation had been removed from the cave using muscle power. The cleaning of the cave should be completed with another campaign in summer 2019.

literature

  • Thomas Matthalm, Ulrich Meyer: The giant thing shaft cave in the Untersberg . In: Association of Austrian cave researchers, Association of German cave and karst researchers eV (Hrsg.): Die Höhle - magazine for karst and cave science . tape 60 , 2009, p. 33–43 ( PDF on ZOBODAT ).
  • Lars Abromeit: "Should I hang my life on this battered rope?" In: GEO . No. 1 , 2010, p. 100–114 ( article and photo gallery on GEO.de).
  • Ulrich Meyer, Thomas Matthalm: The giant thing shaft cave in Untersberg . In: Messages of the Association of German Cave and Karst Researchers eV Band 57 , no. 2 , May 23, 2011, ISSN  0505-2211 , p. 36–44 ( vdhk.de [PDF; 2.6 MB ; accessed on October 25, 2012]).
  • Ulrich Meyer: In search of the Barbarossa system in the Untersberg . In: Files of the 13th National Speleological Congress, 2012 - Actes du 13e Congrès national de Spéléologie . Muotathal 2012, p. 68–74 ( agsr.ch [PDF; 462 kB ; accessed on October 25, 2012]).
  • Stephan Kempe : Why cave exploration? A look back at the accident in the giant thing . Announcements from the Association of German Cave and Karst Researchers, 60 (3): pp. 68–69, 2014.
  • Ulrich Meyer: The huge thing in Untersberg . Working group for cave research Bad Cannstatt eV (Ed.), Bad Cannstatt 2015.

Web links

Commons : Giant Thing Manhole Cave  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Kilian Pfeiffer: "Huge thing" is closed . Berchtesgadener Anzeiger , June 20, 2014.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Ulrich Meyer, Thomas Matthalm: The giant thing shaft cave in Untersberg . In: Messages of the Association of German Cave and Karst Researchers eV Band 57 , no. 2 , May 23, 2011, ISSN  0505-2211 , p. 36–44 ( 2.55 MB PDF [accessed October 25, 2012]).
  3. ↑ Thilo Müller, Andreas Wolf: List of the longest and deepest caves in Germany. Working group Höhle & Karst Grabenstetten e. V., March 2018, accessed on May 6, 2018 .
  4. ↑ a b c d Untersberg giant thing shaft cave. Working group for cave research Bad Cannstatt eV, October 2018, accessed on February 10, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Martina Scherf: In the deepest cave in Germany . sueddeutsche.de , June 10, 2014
  6. ↑ Bavarian State Office for the Environment, Geotop Riesending-Schachthöhle in Untersberg (accessed on December 17, 2017).
  7. ↑ a b c d Stephanie Geiger: Bavaria's lowest point . Die Welt , September 21, 2008.
  8. ↑ Giant thing shaft cave: Doctor doesn't get any further for the time being . Stuttgarter Zeitung , June 11, 2014.
  9. ↑ a b c Ulrich Meyer: In search of the Barbarossa system in the Untersberg . In: Files of the 13th National Speleological Congress, 2012 - Actes du 13e Congrès national de Spéléologie . Muotathal 2012, p. 68–74 ( 462 kB PDF [accessed June 16, 2014]).
  10. ↑ Franz Lindenmayr: Landscape and caves on the Bavarian side of the Untersberg , accessed on 13:40, June 16, 2014 (CEST)
  11. ^ Thomas Matthalm, Ulrich Meyer: The giant thing shaft cave in Untersberg . In: Association of Austrian cave researchers, Association of German cave and karst researchers eV (Hrsg.): Die Höhle - magazine for karst and cave science . tape 60 , 2009, p. 33–43 ( PDF (18 MB) on ZOBODAT ).
  12. ↑ a b Germany from below . Terra X , first broadcast: May 17, 2014
  13. ↑ Agenda for the meeting of the municipal council of the Bischofswiesen municipality on Tuesday, June 24th, 2014 at 6.30 p.m., Bischofswiesen municipality. accessed on June 19, 2014 (PDF) ( Memento from July 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  14. ↑ a b c Getting to the bottom of the "giant thing" . Berchtesgadener Anzeiger , May 14, 2014
  15. Jump up ↑ Andreas Frey: Höhlenforscher: Extremisten der Wissens . In: FAZ.NET , June 17, 2014.
  16. ^ A b Stephanie Geiger: After researcher misfortune: Bavaria's interior minister wants to close giant things cave . In: FAZ.NET , June 18, 2014.
  17. ↑ Accidental researcher Johann Westhauser: Rescue operation after cave drama is dragging on . In: FAZ.NET , June 11, 2014
  18. ↑ International cave rescue operation , Bergwacht Bayern , June 25, 2014.
  19. ↑ Big thing cave: Cave drama: Surgeon wants to operate at a depth of 1000 meters if necessary . In: Augsburger Allgemeine , June 11, 2014
  20. ↑ Chronology of the rescue operation , German Red Cross .
  21. ↑ Balance of the giant thing rescuers: "It was a mammoth task" . Spiegel Online , June 19, 2014.
  22. ↑ Germania, speleologo intrappolato a mille metri sotto terra . Corriere della Sera , June 12, 2014.
  23. ↑ Une opération d'envergure pour secourir un spéléologue allemand . Le Figaro , June 10, 2014.
  24. ^ German cave rescue of Johann Westhauser under way . BBC , June 16, 2014.
  25. ↑ German cave rescue of Johann Westhauser can begin, doctors say . CBC news , June 12, 2014.
  26. ↑ Giant things cave painstakingly cleaned orf.at, November 3, 2018, accessed November 3, 2018.