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.

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.

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