Like mountaineers scaling a Himalaya peak, our expedition of 56 cavers from seven countries established a series of campsites at depths of , 1,, 1,, and 1, meters 2,, 3,, 4,, and 5, feet. There team members cooked meals, slept five and six to a tent, huddled for warmth, and worked for up to 20 hours at a stretch. By the third week our downward progress was blocked by a sump at a depth of 1, meters 5, feet.
Gennadiy Samokhin surfaced after a dive to examine a tight squeeze at the bottom of a ten-meter-deep Also unsuccessful, he discovered to his dismay that his waterproof dry suit had holes in it.
In a last ditch effort, Denis Kurta and Dmitry Fedotov squeezed through a narrow, meter-long foot-long passage called the Way to the Dream, which successfully bypassed the sump and pointed steeply down. The next day Bernard Tourte and others followed. The newly discovered passage led to yet another sump at a record 1, meters 6, feet , where Samokhin emerged smiling from a brief test dive. There was a promising downward tunnel, he reported. But it would have to wait. After nearly four weeks of working underground, with supplies running low, our expedition had finally run out of time.
Flush with our success and relieved that team members had incurred only minor injuries, I opened my arms to welcome each of the cavers as he or she emerged back on the surface. Bernard Tourte, his red caving suit, helmet, and gear completely covered with grime, held a congratulatory bouquet of alpine flowers—for a job well done. But finally, on October 19, Kasjan dropped down a pit later dubbed Millennium and looked at his altimeter.
He had passed the 2,meter depth, a fact later confirmed by surveying. But the caving game is far from over. Extras: See photos, field notes, and more from this National Geographic article. All rights reserved. Share Tweet Email. Read This Next Wild parakeets have taken a liking to London. It's in a remote area of Abkhazia, in the Arabika Massif Mountains. Knowing this, it's easy to understand why the entire area - even above ground - of Abkhazia has been under-explored, leading to plenty of mystery and curiosity around both the cave and its immediate surroundings.
One thing that's no longer a mystery about the cave, however, is about the type of creatures that dwell in it. This is limited to microorganisms and insect life, which includes spiders, beetles, scorpions, and even shrimp. In order to reach the bottom of the cave where these creatures dwell, it took teams a whopping two weeks to slowly descend to such depths.
Not only is this cave in a remote location, but it takes an extraordinary amount of time - and a brave team - to make discoveries such as this. There's still much left that's unknown regarding Krubera and interestingly enough, it's not the only cave that remains wholly unexplored. Comparable to the Mariana's Trench, Krubera will likely remain a mystery until scientists can decipher a way to explore its subterranean channels without posing significant risks to the divers whose job it is to map out these tunnels.
Until then, all we know is what we have, and what we have is a mystery that exceeds any other cave depth on this earth. Originally from New York, Katie is used to a fast-paced lifestyle. She got her personal start with writing in the second grade, and carried that passion with her until she won a spot in her high school's published poetry book - but not before becoming the News Editor and columnist for the high school newspaper.
In college, she majored in English Literature with an emphasis in Political Science, soaking up most creativity and method from one of the last professors to study under famed beat poet Allen Ginsberg.
The more she wrote, the more she learned about the world and, more importantly, herself. There the Cretaceous succession includes Barremian and Aptian—Cenomanian limestones and marly limestones with abundant concretions of black chert. The Upper Jurassic succession begins with thin-bedded Kimmeridgian—Oxfordian cherty limestones, marls, sandstones and clays, which are identified in the lower part of Krubera Cave. Above lies the thick Tithonian succession of thick-bedded limestones with marly and sandy varieties.
Sandy limestones are particularly abundant through the upper 1, m sections of deep caves of the Ortobalagan Valley. The tectonic structure of Arabika is dominated by the axis of the large sub-Caucasian anticline oriented NW—SE , with the gently dipping southwestern mega-flank, complicated by several low-order folds, and steeply dipping northeastern flank Figure 3. The axis of the anticline roughly coincides with the ridge bordering the Gelgeluk Valley to the north.
The plicative dislocation structure of the massif is severely complicated by faults, with the fault-block structure strongly controlling both cave development and groundwater flow. Major faults of the sub-Caucasian orientation delineate several large elongated blocks that experienced uplift with different rates during Pliocene and Pleistocene.
This had a pronounced effect on the development of deep groundwater circulation and of Krubera Cave in particular. Both longitudinal and transverse faults and related fracture zones play a role in guiding groundwater flow; the latter guide flow across the strike of major plicative dislocations, from the central sector toward the Black Sea.
Major on-shore karst springs with individual average discharges of 1 to 2. Two of them are located in the shore area; these are Reproa average discharge 2. Two more major springs are located in the river canyons bordering Arabika to the east: Goluboe Ozero in the Bzyb canyon 2. There are also several smaller springs in the Gagra town.
Some boreholes located along the shore of the Black Sea yield karstic groundwater from depths of 40— m below sea level. Other much deeper boreholes tapped low-salinity karstic waters at depths of and 1, m in the Khashupse Valley near Tsandripsh and 2, m near Gagra.
This suggests the existence of a deep karst system and vigorous karst groundwater circulation at depth. Submarine springs are known in the Arabika area, emerging from the floor of the Black Sea in front of the massif.
Shallow springs at depths of 5—7 m can be reached by free dive near Tsandripsh. Recently an outstanding feature of the sea floor topography near Arabika has been revealed from a digital bathymetric map that combines depth soundings and high-resolution marine gravity data. This is a huge submarine depression in front of the Zhovekvara River mouth, which has dimensions of about 5 x 9 km and a maximum depth of about m 1, ft.
The Arabika Submarine Depression is a closed feature with internal vertical relief of about m ft measured from its lowest rim separated from the abyssal slope by the bar at a depth of about m ft. It has steep northern and northeastern slopes on the side of the massif and gentle south and southwestern slopes.
Its formation is apparently karstic. Presently this depression seems to be a focus of submarine discharge of the karst systems of Arabika. The speleological explorations and a series of dye tracing experiments conducted during the s under the coordination of Alexander Klimchouk have radically changed previous notions of the hydrogeology of Arabika, revealed its outstanding speleological perspectives and strongly stimulated further efforts for exploration of deep caves.
Tracers injected in the Kujbyshevskaja Cave and the Iljukhina System were detected in the Kholodnaja Rechka and Reproa springs, proving groundwater flow to the south-southwest across major tectonic structures over a distance of 13—16 km as the crow flies Figure 1.
The tracer from Kujbyshevskaja Cave was also detected in a borehole located between these two springs, which yields groundwater from a depth of m ft below sea level. This has been interpreted as an indication of the connection of the cave with the submarine discharge.
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