Verkovkina

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Verkovkina

Side profile of the cave

Side profile of the cave
Location: Abkhazia , Georgia
Height : 2309  m
Geographic
location: 		43 ° 24 '56 "  N , 40 ° 21' 23"  E Coordinates: 43 ° 24 '56 "  N , 40 ° 21' 23"  E
Verkovkina (Georgia)
Verkovkina
Geology: limestone
Type: high alpine cave
Discovery: 1960 by Georgian speleologists
Overall length: 13.5 km
Level difference: 2212 m
Particularities: deepest cave in the world
Cave plan

The Werjowkina ( English Veryovkina Cave , Russian Пещера Верёвкина , Georgian ვერიოვკინის მღვიმე ) is the deepest known cave on earth with a depth of 2212 meters . It is located in the Arabika massif of the Gagra ridge in the Western Caucasus . Politically, it belongs to the Gagra Rajon , the westernmost region of the internationally not recognized Autonomous Republic of Abkhazia in Georgia .

The entrance to the limestone cave is located 2309 meters above sea level on a pass between the 2384 and 2382 meter high mountains Krepost and Zont , but closer to Krepost. The entrance shaft is three by four meters and 32 meters deep. It is only 800 meters away from the Voronja Cave , which was considered the deepest cave in the world until 2017 and, according to researchers, could even be connected to it underground.

History of exploration

The cave was discovered in 1960 by a speleological expedition from the Geographical Institute, who explored it 95 meters deep. At first there was no further exploration because the corridors leading into the depths do not connect to one another, but rather cross and are connected by small tunnels. In 1968 cave seekers from Krasnoyarsk examined the cave, reached a depth of 115 meters and named it "S-115". When they wanted to visit the Werjowkina again in 1980, they could not find it because the position on the map had been offset two kilometers. From 1981 the entire Arabika massif was divided into areas and systematically searched for caves. In 1982 the cave was rediscovered by the Moscow Speleoclub Perovo and renamed "P1-7". From 1983 to 1986 the cave explorers explored the cave and in several steps reached a depth of 440 meters. On the last expedition, a caver collapsed and broke a rib. In 1986 it was christened "Werjowkina" after the cave diver Alexander Werjowkin, who died in 1983 in the Su-Akan cave in Kabardino-Balkaria .

The cave was not explored further until 2000. From 2000 to 2015, the Perovo Speleo Club and its Perovo-speleo team continued their exploration of the cave floor in eleven expeditions. However, the depth reached remained at 440 meters. In August 2015, the group finally found a new, 156-meter-deep shaft. This cleared the way for further exploration. Expeditions in June, August and October 2016 reached ever greater depths of 630, 1010 and finally 1350 meters. To do this, nine researchers were in the cave for eleven days. An expedition of the Perovo speleo group reached a depth of 1832 meters in February 2017. This made the Werjowkina the second deepest known cave in the world after the Voronja Cave, which is also located in Abkhazia.

At the beginning of August 2017, the Perovo speleo group explored the cave to a depth of 2151 meters. This made it clear that the Werjowkina is a super deep cave , i. H. belongs to the group of caves with a depth of more than 2000 meters. At the same time, it is the world's deepest cave that can be explored without diving equipment. The investigation in August 2017 found an ancient catcher of the karst aquifer system with wide horizontal tunnels, which is untypical for the Arabika massif. In the second half of August 2017, the Perovo-speleo team finally reached a depth of 2204 meters, which was a new world record. A large system of more than six kilometers of sub-horizontal passages below a depth of 2100 meters was discovered and mapped. Since September 3, 2017 the Werjowkina is considered the deepest cave on earth. In March 2018, the same team added more than a kilometer of tunnels to the map and measured the depth of “Captain Nemo's Last Station” lake to 8.5 meters, increasing the total depth to 2212 meters. Also at the bottom of the cave, at the same depth, is the “Nautilus siphon ”.

To reach the bottom of the cave, four Russian speleologists had to descend for three days. Everyone had to carry 20 kilograms of luggage. To communicate with the surface, huge spirals of telephone cables were pulled down into the depths. In total, the researchers were underground for eleven days.

particularities

In the cave there are, as in most waterfalls, stalactites , stalagmites and stalagmites . The 115-meter-deep entrance shaft, which was discovered in 1968, is now called the Krasnoyarsk-Ast . At a depth of 120 meters you have to go in the middle of a well through a narrow tube with a 10 ° incline upwards. The 440 meter deep tunnel, which was explored until 1986, but branches off from today's tunnel at a depth of approx. 150 meters, is called the old Perovo branch . The Babatunda Pit is 150 meters deep at a depth of approx. 350 to 500 meters . The underground camps are all named after their approximate depth: Camp −600, Camp −1000, Camp −1350, Camp −1900 and Camp −2100. A narrow, almost horizontal tunnel at −1100 meters was named Rosa Meander . The upper end of the 115-meter-deep so-called one-and-a-half pit is about 1400 meters deep . Siphon S1 is located in a 30 meter long side tunnel at −1720 meters . At a depth of 1,800 meters there is a very narrow and almost horizontal corridor around 70 meters long, which is registered as a half-siphon . From a depth of 2100 meters, the tunnels, which had previously led more or less directly down, suddenly branch out very strongly horizontally. The cave doesn't get much deeper, but you can move horizontally in the cave for over a kilometer. Here an impassable underground river moving about 0.5 cubic meters per second has been discovered that has not yet been recorded anywhere else. The two deepest points are at the southern end of this tangle of corridors. In total, the cave has 13,500 meters of recorded passages.

Living organisms have also been found at great depths. Russian cave explorers collected more than 20 scientific samples of the cave fauna and brought them to the surface. Among them are probably still undescribed species. It concerns u. a. about leeches , millipedes and pseudoscorpions . The samples are examined at the Institute for Inland Water Biology. In addition, previously undescribed beetles may have been found and nine reptiles were caught in the cave in 2017.

In 2017 there were quarrels between the speleologists and the Abkhaz government because expeditions had not been reported. The State Committee for Ecology and Nature Conservation argued that researchers could name things in such a way that the names contradict the Abkhazian toponym law.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Voryovkina in the CAVES information system (Russian)
  2. ↑ WORLDS DEEPEST CAVES Compiled by: Bob Gulden - Dec. 22, 2017 , caverbob.com
  3. ↑ Российские спелеологи 2 недели спускались в самую глубокую пещеру мира и нашли на дне новые живые организмы (Russian cavers are long boarded two weeks at the deepest cave in the world and there have new living organisms found). tribona.ru; April 8, 2018.
  4. ↑ ОТКРЫТИЕ И ИСТОРИЯ ИССЛЕДОВАНИЯ ПЕЩЕРЫ им. А. Веревкина (1968-1986 г.) (OPENING AND HISTORY OF THE INVESTIGATION OF THE CAVE? Them. A. Verewka (1968-1986)), article on the early exploration of the cave, incave.org, November 12, 2016.
  5. ↑ Первый километр в пещере Веревкина (The first kilometer in the Verewkin cave), incave.org, August 21, 2016.
  6. ↑ Пещера Верёвкина вошла в тройку глубочайших пещер мира (Cave Verevkin entered the three deepest caves in the world), incave.org, March 2, 2017.
  7. ↑ Adam Szumilak (ed.), Search for Earth, "World Knowledge" (1/2018), Farmer, December 18, 2017, pp 60-68. ISSN 20835825
  8. ↑ Pavel Demidov (2017): The deepest cave in the world. UIS (Union Internationale de Spéléologie) Bulletin 59 (2): 49-51.
  9. ↑ Экспедиция в Верёвкина март 2018. Глубина пещеры достигла -2212 метров. (Expedition to Verewkina March 2018. The depth of the cave reached −2212 meters.), Incave.org, March 12, 2018. Article with many photos
  10. ↑ Speleoclub "Perovo" (Moscow) updates , Ukrainian Institute of Speleology and Karstologie, September 9, 2017th
  11. ↑ Bujne życie w najgłębszej jaskini świata (A lush life in the deepest cave in the world), Rzeczpospolita . April 9, 2018 (Polish)
  12. ↑ ПЕЩЕРА ИМ. А. ВЕРЕВКИНА , Afon-Cave.ru
  13. ↑ Badri Esiava: Пещера Веревкина в Абхазии: претендент на рекорд и новый вид жуков ( Verevkinia Cave in Abkhazia, March 29, 2017. Applicant for a record and a new species of Abkutnikhats)