Tears of the Turtle Cave

Tears of the Turtle
Location Bob Marshall Wilderness
Depth 1659 ft (506 m)
Length 1.167 mi (1878 m)
Entrances 1
Hazards Temperature, Vertical, Remote Location

Tears of the Turtle Cave is located in the Bob Marshall Wilderness and is currently the deepest limestone cave in the United States since passing New Mexico's Lechuguilla cave in 2014.[1] As of July 2014 the cave is 1629 feet deep and 1.167 miles long.[2][3] The cave consists mostly of roughly 2 foot wide fissure passage passing over dozens of short rope drops. With a mean temperature of 39 degrees F (4 C), it is muddy and poorly decorated.[4]

Exploration History

Camp near the known bottom of the cave

The entrance to Tears of the Turtle Cave was found in 2006. The cave passage is mostly a two to three foot wide fissure that follows a stream downward through numerous rappels. In 2014 a team of nine cavers explored new passage pushing the cave to a depth of 1629 feet and in doing so passed New Mexico's Lechuguilla Cave to become the deepest known limestone cave in the United States.[1][5][6] Exploration continued in 2016 when teams returned to push the cave to its current known depth of 1659 feet.[7] On those trips the difficulty necessitated establishing camp in the cave for the first time. This, along with the technical rope work, 39 degree temperature, and remote location of the cave make continued exploration difficult. A return trip is currently planned for 2018.[7]

Ongoing exploration is done through the Caves of Montana Project, an official project of the National Speleological Society. Exploration is conducted under a MOU with the United States Forest Service.[3]

Geology

The cave is located in typical karst landscape and is formed in the Cambrian Pagoda Limestone. Over the years water from rainfall and snowmelt have dissolved away the limestone to form a typical vadose solutional cave with fissure passage 2–3 feet wide and tall ceilings.[8]

A wide spot in the passage near the known bottom of Tears of the Turtle cave.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 McDermott, Ted. "Deepest cave discovered in the Bob". Missoula News. Retrieved 2016-12-14.
  2. ↑ Gulden, Bob (2016-12-13). "USA Deepest Caves". NSS Geo2 Committee on Long and Deep Caves. Retrieved 2016-12-13.
  3. 1 2 Ballensky, Jason (2014-09-01). "Beneath the Forest" (PDF). United States Forest Service. Retrieved 2017-01-06.
  4. ↑ Johnson, Peter (2014). "Tears in Montana: Deep Caving in the Bob Marshall Wilderness". NSS News. 72, #12: 6.
  5. ↑ "Exploring the Hidden World of The Bob". Flathead Beacon. 2014-09-17. Retrieved 2017-01-06.
  6. ↑ "The Bob has a deep, dark wilderness secret". Spokesman.com. Retrieved 2017-01-06.
  7. 1 2 "How Low Can They Go?". Retrieved 2016-12-17.
  8. ↑ Bodenheimer and Powell, Hans and John (2012). "Continental Divide Syncline Geology". Alpine Karst. 4.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.