Wind hole in the Mühlenberg

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Wind hole in the Mühlenberg

Entry shaft of the wind hole in Mühlenberg

Entry shaft of the wind hole in Mühlenberg
Location: near Engelskirchen - Ründeroth
Geographic
location: 		50 ° 59 '39 "  N , 7 ° 27' 3"  E Coordinates: 50 ° 59 '39 "  N , 7 ° 27' 3"  E
Windhole in Mühlenberg (North Rhine-Westphalia)
Wind hole in the Mühlenberg
Cadastral number: 5010/026
Type: Karst cave
Discovery: 23 March 2019
Overall length: 7200 m
Level difference: 60 m

The wind hole in the Mühlenberg is a labyrinthine karst cave system in the Engelskirchen district of Ründeroth . With a previously documented total length of 7200 meters, this giant cave is the largest cave in the Rhineland in front of the Hardthöhlen in Wuppertal and in North Rhine-Westphalia in front of the Atta-Höhle .

Location and description

The labyrinthine duct system with a pronounced west-east extension, located in the base limestone of the Hobräck ​​layers ( Middle Devonian ), a reef limestone platform up to a maximum of 100 m thick , is at least 35 million years old and untouched by humans until 2019, is located within the Ründerother Mühlenberg between the Walbach - Ponoren and the subterranean mouth of the same into the Agger . The entrance, which is not accessible to the public, is not far northeast of the Aggertal cave . During the first visit , cave explorers found corridors with a length of around one kilometer and 40 meter hall-like intermediate pieces. Successive measurements with up to 17 speleologists have so far resulted in a total length of 7200 m (as of June 15, 2020). The wind hole in the Mühlenberg thus fulfills the definition of a giant cave system . According to measurements in 2020, it is the largest cave in North Rhine-Westphalia.

There are no publications yet on the cave fauna . There is still no explanation for a dried up frog documented deep inside the cave .

Crystals , fossils and rare plaster formations can be found in the wind hole in Mühlenberg .

Even if the wind hole is only 200 meters away from the Aggertal cave, researchers currently assume that there is no connection between the two caves.

Possibly the largest iron flowers in Europe were found in the cave .

history

Researchers had already suspected decades before the cave was discovered that there must be other caves in the Mühlenberg in addition to the Aggertal cave. However, due to a lack of technical means, the information could not be followed up. The experts have been looking for an entrance since 1988. A clue for a possibly existing tunnel system in the Mühlenberg was the Walbach , which seeps into swallow holes in this area and emerges on the other side of the mountain after less than four hours, which is unusually fast.

Other signs of a cave were small cavities that were discovered during road works. In addition, cracks came to light in 2009, with warm air escaping from one in winter. The mayor of Engelskirchen, Gero Karthaus , then contacted Stefan Voigt , who, together with colleagues, found access to the cave.

The first visit by the Kluterthöhle working group took place on March 23, 2019. The cave is to be explored systematically in the coming years.

literature

  • Working group Kluterthöhle eV (Ed.): The wind hole in Mühlenberg: A discovery of the century is being explored. Ennepetal, 2019, ISBN 978-3-00-064038-4 .

Web links

Commons : Windloch im Mühlenberg  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c 7.2 kilometers Engelskirchener Windloch is in the top ten German caves. In: rundschau-online.de . June 15, 2020, accessed June 15, 2020 .
  2. ↑ a b Carsten Ebenau, Stefan Voigt, Kluterthöhle Working Group. V .: Big new discovery in the Bergisches Land (North Rhine-Westphalia) . In: Communications from the Association of German Cave and Karst Researchers . 65th year, no. 1 + 2 , 2019, pp. 39 ( vdhk.de [PDF; 10.5 MB ; accessed on June 24, 2019]).
  3. ↑ Giant Cave Windloch. Arbeitsskreis Kluterthöhle eV, September 10, 2019, accessed on September 10, 2019 .
  4. ↑ a b Windloch, the longest cave in the Rhineland. Working group Kluterthöhle eV, July 30, 2019, accessed on August 1, 2019 .
  5. ↑ a b "Windloch" in Bergisch officially "Riesenhöhle". In: wdr.de . September 11, 2019, accessed June 15, 2020 .
  6. ↑ a b c Torsten Sülzer: After a sensational find near Ründeroth: This is what the largest cave in the Rhineland looks like. In: rundschau-online.de. April 5, 2019, accessed April 5, 2019 .
  7. ↑ a b c d e Bernd Vorländer, Leif Schmittgen: "We are proud of our underworld". In: Oberberg-Aktuell. April 4, 2019, accessed April 5, 2019 .
  8. ↑ Jens Höhner: According to new measurements: Windloch is now the longest cave in North Rhine-Westphalia. In: ksta.de . May 24, 2020, accessed May 24, 2020 .
  9. ↑ New cave system in Oberberg - researchers make spectacular “discovery of the century”. In: rundschau-online.de. April 2, 2019, accessed April 5, 2019 .
  10. ↑ Ulrich Brämer: Spectacular giant crystal finds in the wind hole. In: akkh.de. June 24, 2020, accessed June 24, 2020 . Torsten Sülzer: Gigantic iron flowers in Engelskirchen: Researchers make sensational find in the wind hole. In: rundschau-online.de . June 24, 2020, accessed June 24, 2020 . “Windhole” cave: Researchers are now making an incredible find in the Bergisches Land. In: Express.de . June 24, 2020, accessed June 24, 2020 .
  11. ↑ Millions of years old: Researchers find a huge cave in the Bergisches Land. In: Spiegel Online . April 5, 2019, accessed June 15, 2020 .
  12. ↑ a b Statement by Stefan Voigt in an interview with the WDR, published in: "Windloch am Mühlenberg": Researchers explore widely ramified caves. In: tagesschau.de. April 5, 2019, archived from the original on April 5, 2019 ; accessed on April 5, 2019 .
  13. ↑ A spectacular new discovery from the AKKH: Largest cave find in more than 35 years. In: akkh.de. March 24, 2019, accessed April 5, 2019 .