Shaft (caving)
Shaft in Mammoth Cave / Kentucky (USA).
Speleologist shortly before abseiling in the giant shaft of the Hirlatz cave .
A shaft is a cave exploration term for a more or less vertical part of a passage that extends into the depths.
A shaft can also be a chimney . The delimitation of the terms is vague and depends largely on the direction from which the corridor part is researched. If the research is mainly carried out from the bottom, one speaks of a chimney.
Emergence
The formation of vertical cave structures is determined by various factors. Running water can further enlarge the vertical chimney or shaft due to chemical dissolution processes or corrosive effects. It thereby act processes of Efforation (pressure erosion), gravitational erosion (deep erosion) and lateral erosion.
Individual evidence
- ^ Radim Kettner: General Geology. Volume III, The External Geological Forces, the Surface of the Earth and the Geological Activity of Water . Berlin 1959, pp. 236-237, 249
- ↑ Vladimír Panoš: Karsologická a speleologická terminologie . Žilina (Knižné centrum) 2001, entry: Aven on p. 22 ISBN 80-8064-115-3