Four Hebrew U. researchers reach new lows in Abkhazia, and find new species of transparent fish

Boaz Langford of the Israeli cave exploration delegation
at a depth of 2,080 meters in the Krubera-Voronya cave in Abkhazia

Four researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem partook in a spelunking expedition to the deepest cave in the world, also known as the “Everest of the caves.”

The four explorers — Boaz Langford, Leonid Fagin, Vladimir Buslov and Yuval Elmaliach — joined the Ukrainian Speleological Association as part of an international delegation that aimed to break the world record for deepest place reached by spelunkers. On the team, which just returned from the trip, were members from nine countries, including Israel and Lebanon.

“The purpose of the venture was to break the world’s record for cave exploration — an achievement reached when a Ukrainian researcher reached a depth of 2,196 meters beneath the earth’s surface, five meters deeper than the previous record,” Professor Amos Frumkin of the Department of Geography at the Hebrew University, who heads the university’s cave research unit, said in a press statement on Sunday.

The second deepest cave in the World became deeper

An ongoing joint expedition of caving clubs from several Siberian sities to Sarma Cave in the Arabika Massif (Western Caucasus), led by Pavel Rudko, has reported that the cave has been pushed 60 m below the previous deepest point (-1760 m) reached last year.

This firmly establishes Sarma Cave as the second deepest cave in the world with depth of 1830 m, following Krubera Cave, located in the same massif, which has been explored this August to -2197 m by the Ukrainian expedition. The third place is hold by Snezhnaya Cave in the nearby Bzybsky Massif, with a depth of 1760 m.

Source: Speleogenesis

Lethal cave diving accident in Ilyuhinskaya

On August 20th cave diver Alexei Savelyev passed away after an accident in the second siphon of the Ilyuhinskaya cave at a depth of around 1000 m. 

He was a member of the Sokolniki club, who were exploring the cave. Together with his diver partner Aleksey Aksenov he was on his way back from explorations beyond the 4th siphon.

His dive partner tried to resuscitate him but he was unsuccesful.

Currently, participants of nearby expeditions (Kuybishevskaya, Voronya) are working together with the expedition team to extract the body from the cave. 

Given the depth and many obstacles along the way (including a siphon), the rescue action is going to be long and difficult.

Our thoughs go out to all family, friends and fellow cave divers. 

Source: Cavers Mailing List & Sokolniki RUDN

Krubera - Voronya: The deepest cave in the world became 6 m deeper

In august 2012 an international group of cavers descended the deepest cave in the world: Krubera-Voronya which is located in Abkhazia (Georgia).

The expedition included around 60 representatives of various foreign countries, mainly Ukrainians, as well as 15 Lithuanians.

The news is still sparse, but it seems that the Ukrainian cave diver Gennadiiy Samokhin, was able to find a new lead and push the depth of worlds deepest cave to a new record of 2197 m.

This is six meters deeper than the previous record.  A big thanks goes out to the Lithuanian's support team who laid out all the lines.

As for now it remains the only cave with a depth of more than 2000 meters.

The expedition had to deal with high water levels and had some technicial problems (communication was lost for a while) during the beginning of the expedition.

Jurkėnienė said reaching the surface safely was the team's main task now.

"There have been no heavy showers this week but weather conditions remain bad. It is still raining and conditions inside the case are rather bad. They said three siphons they have to dive through to reach the bottom are flooded. It will be a bit harder to come out."

Lithuanian Vytis Vilkas had planned to reach the record depth but he dropped the plan after his health deteriorated.

More news will follow.

Voronya Cave Expedition Video

New beetle species discovered in world's deepest cave

Catops cavicis

The latest issue of the entomological journal "Boletin de La Sociedad Entomologica Aragonesa" features an article of Dr. Pier Mauro Giachino, about a new species of beetle that was discovered inside world's deepest cave ( Krubera-Voronya system -2191 m.)

The beetle in question is called Catops cavicis, after the Ibero-Russian Cavex Team, who collected the beetles. 

You can download a copy of the article here.

Article:
Catops cavicis N. sp. from the Krubera-Voronya cave (Abkhazia, Caucasus), an interesting species of the C. alpinus group (Sensu Perrau, 2000) (Coleoptera, Cholevidae), Pier Mauro Giachino, Boletín de la Sociedad Entomológica Aragonesa (S.E.A.), nº 49 (31/12/2011): 87‒89.

New survey of the 3rd deepest cave in the world

A new survey of the 3rd deepest cave in the world , the Snezhnaya-Mezhennogo-Illuzia system  is available for download at  http://club13mm.ru/topo/

The Snezhnaya-Mezhennogo-Illuzia system is 24080 m long and -1753 m deep. 

The system is located in the Hipsta mountain range in Abkhazia on the Northern-Eastern shore of the Black Sea. 

The entrances are as follows (see picture, from left to right): 5th - Illuzia cave (entrance at 2385 m, depth: - 513 m, length: 1157 m), 6th - Mezhennogo cave (entrance at 2015 m, depth: - 1370 meters, length: 19 km ), 7th - Snezhnaya cave (entrance at 1980 m ).

Click here for a virtual tour (photoblog)

Sarma Cave became the second deepest cave in the world

Pavel Rud’ko of Krasnoyarsk (Rissia, Siberia) has reported the success of the recent expedition of Krasnoyarsk cavers to the Sarma Cave, Arabika Massif, Western Caucasus.

The cave, previously explored by cavers from Krasnoyarsk and Irkutsk to -1570 m, has now been made
almost 200 m deeper, to reach depth of -1760 m and become the second deepest cave in the world.

The expedition led by Pavel Rud’ko has been carried out between September 1st - October 7th, 2011. The main branch has been pushed to -1760 m after breaking through a narrow meander at the old bottom.

Many side and ascending passages in other parts of the cave have been also explored. The expedition performed systematic temperature measurements, and speleobiological and microbiological sampling.

With its new depth figure, Sarma surpassed the Illjuzia-Mezhonnogo-Snezhnaya system (-1753 m), located in the nearby Bzybsky Massif, and became the second deepest cave in the world, following Krubera Cave (-2191 m) located in the same massif. Thus, the western Caucasus now hosts three deepest caves in the worlds, two of them in Arabika Massif and one in Bzybsky Massif.

Towards the centre of the Earth expedition 2010. Krubera Voronya

Towards the centre of the Earth expedition 2010. Krubera Voronya cave in Abkhazia/Georgia. Currently the deepest cave in the world.

Photos by Niall Aidas Jolanta Laura and Jesus.

Music by And So I Watched You From Afar - 'The Voiceless' Go to their myspace site for details.

Krubera Voronya cave: dive through Kvitochka

Documentary footage of 3 Lithuanian speleologists (Saulė Pankienė, Gintautas Švedas, Aidas Gudaitis) and 1 cave diver (Vytis Vilkas) diving through "Kvitochka" siphon and getting to siphon "Dva Kapitana" in Krubera Voronya cave, 2010 August.

Dive through siphon takes about 4 minutes, but it's cropped as it's not very informative due to poor visibility.

Video: Krubera-Voronya expedition

Krubera-Voronya expedition video