#czech karst

[honourablejester]

“There are some that suggest that areas of heavy limestone have some sort of connection to paranormal events.”

I’m watching a video about the hauntings of Houska Castle in the Czech Republic, and this line came out, and I just …

Okay. Noodling around, apparently this is about properties of limestone as a material (made of deceased organic creatures, so more psychically permeable), which is a whole different ballgame, but if it was about limestone areas, I can tell you exactly why they’re associated with hauntings and other mysterious things.

It’s because they’re full of fucking holes.

Limestone is ridiculously vulnerable to water, and karst caves can be fucking huge. As an exercise, hop over to wikipedia’s list of longest cave systems in the world, and head down through the list, and see how many of them are limestone (with some gypsum for variety). The same for the list of deepest cave systems. Limestone areas are often just riddled with gaps and holes and weird formations, and weird noises from weird formations, and people vanishing because goddamn holes opened up under them when a below-ground cave finally got eaten enough to collapse. They’re just …

Limestone areas are full of caves. The caves go long and deep and weird. People hide in them. People die in them. People vanish near them. They’re just full of holes. So yeah, they’ve a reputation for weird shit and people going missing. Because they’re full of holes.

Sorry. I’m actually not opposed to paranormal stuff. I quite like ghost stories and paranormal exploration and all of that. Just. Talk about the actual natural causes first?

Especially since this particular case, Houska Castle, the whole thing is that a bottomless pit opened up in the limestone under it and is rumoured to descend to hell. And like. Yes? It’s limestone. That shit do happen.

The stories are really fun, though.

[marmota-b]

I went to a presentation about the discoveries in Králova jeskyně ("the King's Cave", except it's actually named after a speleolog named Král) in the hill Květnice, here in Czechia. The cave was only discovered in 1972, because a dog fell into it - no one had even believed there could be karst caves there, but they are, and the more they find of them the more they realise they're pretty amazing. They recently found this amazing calcite pond with crystals.

The pond is under two meters in diameter and the crystals are up to an inch in size. So fairly small, but still incredibly impressive and amazing.

They said it's so recent they haven't yet had time to figure out if there's anything like it anywhere else in the world, only that it's unique in the context of Moravia as far as we know so far. Which is part of the reason I'm posting about it - in this particular case they're all volunteers, and I thought if by any chance this post finds someone who knows from speleology and knows of something comparable, maybe they'd welcome some input. It sounded like they would be glad to know if it really is unique or if there's anything like it out there, and how come this sort of thing happens. Here's the website of the Czech Speleological Society in case you are that sort of person.

It's not open to public - very narrow caves, no way to let people in without destroying it. They only let people in Králova jeskyně once a year, into a fraction of the spaces they know of, and smaller children in particular can only enter a really small fraction because the rest involves crawling and climbing and requires helmets. They said even just that one annual open door day and their own working in the cave for 50+ years has been enough to mess with the climate and processes inside a bit. (The entry fees from the annual open door day help fund the exploration of the cave.)

So you just have to admire the pictures.

source - Czech news article, photos by Michal Beneš, one of the volunteer speleologists who explore and look after the cave.

Made me think of Gimli and the Glittering Caves, let me tell you. Soooo amazing.

(It's also an important roosting place for bats. They said they know of eight species that winter there, and that, as they keep finding new sections of the cave, they also keep finding bats and finding out bats have their own ways of getting in, so no one really knows for sure how many bats actually live there.)

[ancestorsalive]

21 Facts about the 𝗖𝘇𝗲𝗰𝗵 𝗥𝗲𝗽𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗶𝗰:

1. The Czech Republic was formed in 1993, following the peaceful split of Czechoslovakia in what is known as the Velvet Divorce.

2. The country is home to over 2,000 castles, making it one of the highest densities of castles in the world.

3. Prague, the capital city, is home to the largest ancient castle in the world, Prague Castle, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.

4. The Czech Republic is the birthplace of the world-famous Pilsner lager, originating from the city of Plzeň (Pilsen) in 1842.

5. The country has a long tradition of puppetry and marionette exhibitions. Puppetry was added to UNESCO's list of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2016.

6. The Gregor Mendel, the founder of genetics, was born in 1822 in what is now the Czech Republic.

7. The Czech Republic ranks as one of the top countries in terms of beer consumption per capita. The tradition of brewing dates back to the 10th century.

8. The currency used is the Czech koruna (CZK), as the country has not adopted the Euro.

9. The Charles University in Prague, established in 1348, is one of the oldest universities in the world.

10. The traditional Christmas dinner in the Czech Republic often includes carp, which families sometimes keep alive in their bathtubs before preparing it for the meal.

11. The Czech Republic is the birthplace of the renowned Art Nouveau artist Alphonse Mucha.

12. The country's landscape is quite diverse, including bohemian paradise's rock cities, Moravian karst caves, and mountain ranges like the Krkonoše, home to the highest peak in the country, Sněžka.

13. The Czech Republic is known for its spa towns, including Karlovy Vary, Mariánské Lázně, and Františkovy Lázně, attracting visitors seeking relaxation and therapeutic treatments.

14. The Moravian Karst, a protected nature reserve in the eastern part of the Czech Republic, features more than 1,000 known caves and gorges.

15. The Velocipedes Museum in Česká Třebová is one of the world's largest museums dedicated to bicycles and motorcycles.

16. The Czech language belongs to the West Slavic group of languages and is known for its challenging pronunciation and grammar.

17. Traditional Czech glassmaking and crystal production have a long history, with Bohemian crystal being highly prized worldwide.

18. The Olomouc cheese, known as Olomoucké syrečky or tvarůžky, is a smelly, aged cheese from the region of Olomouc, famous throughout the country.

19. The Czech Republic has a significant tradition of animation and film, with filmmakers like Jan Švankmajer gaining international acclaim.

20. Kutná Hora, a town in the Czech Republic, is home to the Sedlec Ossuary, a small Roman Catholic chapel, adorned with decorations made out of human bones.

21. The Czech Republic was the first former Eastern Bloc state to gain developed economy status according to the World Bank, showcasing its successful transition from a state-controlled economy to a market-driven one.

[traineesnfromb]

An unforgettable adventure in the Punkva Caves

Last week I finally had the opportunity to explore the famous Punkva Caves in the Moravian Karst. This trip had been on my bucket list for a long time, and I have to say: it was worth it!

The history of these fascinating caves goes back a long way. Parts of the caves were explored as early as the 17th century, but it wasn't until 1909 that the Czech speleologist Karel Absolon succeeded in penetrating deeper into the underground labyrinth. His discoveries led to the caves being opened to the public in 1910.

My adventure began with an exciting ride in the cable car. As we floated gently over the picturesque landscape of the Moravian Karst, I could hardly contain my anticipation of the subterranean experience to come. The view from the top was breathtaking and gave a foretaste of the natural wonders that awaited me.

Once inside the caves, I was overwhelmed by the beauty of the stalactites and stalagmites that have formed over thousands of years. Our guide explained that some of these formations grow up to 1cm per century - a fascinating thought of the time spans that nature has been at work here.

The highlight of the tour was undoubtedly the boat trip on the underground river Punkva. In the silence of the cave, interrupted only by the gentle lapping of the water, I felt like I was in another world. When we reached the famous Macocha Abyss, I was speechless in the face of the enormous 138 metre deep gorge.

The Punkva Caves are not only a natural wonder, but also a testament to human exploration and perseverance. The thought of the early explorers who explored this subterranean world with simple means is remarkable.

After the excursion, I was amazed at what Mother Nature is capable of and grateful for this unique experience. The Punkva Caves are definitely worth a visit - a fascinating journey into the depths of the earth and the history of human exploration.

[foggynightdonut]

Koněprusy Caves (Czech: Koněpruské jeskyně), also Zlatý kůň (Golden Horse), is a cave system in the heart of the limestone region known as Bohemian Karst in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic

[rhianna]

AuthorVillari, Luigi, 1876-1959IllustratorHulton, WilliamLoC No.04031171 TitleThe Republic of Ragusa: An Episode of the Turkish ConquestCreditsProduced by Turgut Dincer and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net(This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)LanguageEnglishLoC ClassDB: History: General and Eastern Hemisphere: Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic, SlovakiaSubjectDubrovnik (Croatia) -- HistoryCategoryTextEBook-No.55332Release DateAug 10, 2017Copyright StatusPublic domain in the USA.

THE eastern shore of the Adriatic from the Quarnero to the Bocche di Cattaro is a series of deep inlets and bays, with rocky mountains rising up behind, while countless islands, forming a veritable archipelago, follow the coastline. The country is for the most part bare and stony. The cypress, the olive, the vine grow on it, but never in great quantities. Patches of juniper and other bushes are often the only relief to the long stretches of sterile coast. Here and there more favoured spots appear. At Spalato and in the Canale dei Sette Castelli, on the island of Curzola, in the environs of Ragusa, the vegetation is luxuriant, almost tropical. But Dalmatia is always a narrow strip, and as one pro2ceeds southwards it becomes ever narrower, the mountain ranges at various points coming right down to the water’s edge. The land is subject to intense heat in summer, and is free from great cold, even in the middle of winter. But it suffers from fierce winds, from the bora, which, whirling down from the treeless wastes of the Karst mountains in the north-east, sweeps along the coastline with terrific force. Another curse from which it suffers is the frequency and severity of the earthquakes, which from time to time have wrought fearful havoc among the Dalmatian towns.

But in spite of these disadvantages, along this shore a Latin civilisation arose and flourished which, if inferior to that of Italy, nevertheless played an important and valuable part in European development. Many wars were fought for the possession of Dalmatia. Roman, Byzantine Greek, Norman, Venetian, Hungarian, Slave, and Austrian struggled for it, and each left his impress on its civilisation, although the influence of two among these peoples far surpassed that of all the others—the Roman and the Venetian.

Dalmatia has at all times been essentially a borderland. Geographically it belongs to the eastern peninsula of the Mediterranean, to the Balkan lands. But this narrow strip of coast, as Professor Freeman said,1 “has not a little the air of a thread, a finger, a branch cast forth from the western peninsula.” In its history its character as a march land is still more noticeable, and this feature has always been manifested in a series of civilised communities in the towns, with a hinterland of3 barbarous or semi-civilised races. Here were the farthest Greek settlements in the Adriatic, settlements placed in the midst of a native uncivilised Illyrian population. Here the Romans came and conquered, but did not wholly absorb, the native races. Then the land was disputed between the Eastern and the Western Empires, later between Christianity and Paganism, later still between the Eastern and Western Churches. The Slavonic invasion, while almost obliterating the native Illyrian race, could not sweep away the Roman-Greek civilisation of the coast. Again Dalmatia became the debating ground between Venetian and Hungarian, the former triumphing in the end. When Christianity found itself menaced by the Muhamedan invasion, Dalmatia was the borderland between the two faiths. A hundred years ago it was involved in one phase of the great struggle between England and France. To-day, under the rule of a Power which may be said to be all borderland, it is the scene of another nationalist conflict between two races. As before we still have a civilised fringe, a series of towns, with a vast hinterland inhabited by Slaves, by a race less civilised, yet wishing to become civilised on lines different from those of the Latin race. It is still the borderland between the Catholic and the Orthodox religions, and also between the two branches of the South-Slavonic people—the Croatians and the Serbs.

[51215]

<strong>Sadness <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/tmoravec/">by Ted Moravec</a></strong> <br /><i>Via Flickr:</i> <br />One day, even the statue will fade away...

This shot was taken in a tiny village with wonderful atmosphere. In one place there are are ruins of a belfry, ruins of a crypt, and a large-ish church with a fairly big and beautiful graveyard.

[arborius]

[shadowkat361]

“ The Witch of Katerinska Cave” by Mark Gubics @500px

[earthstory]

butnomatter.theroadislife

Plitvice Lakes, Croatia 🗾

[vera-simik]

My dad and I had both free monday, so we went on a trip to the Moravian Karst - to the Sloup-Šošůvka & Catherine (Kateřinská) caves:

And... I couldn't resist to buy ANOTHER pair of bat socks 😄

[rigarightnow]

15.09.2018, Blansko, Czechia. 

[godsbeautifulcreations]

last rays

Zanfoar

Karst formations - Czech Republic

[beautifulklicks]

last rays

Z anfoar

Karst formations - Czech Republic

[sciencespies]

Earth's deepest known freshwater cave goes a lot deeper than anyone ever realised

https://sciencespies.com/nature/earths-deepest-known-freshwater-cave-goes-a-lot-deeper-than-anyone-ever-realised/

Earth's deepest known freshwater cave goes a lot deeper than anyone ever realised

Several years ago, a remotely operated vehicle was descending down into a freshwater cave system, hidden deep under the Czech Republic, when it came to an abrupt end.

Not the end of the cave, that is, but the end of its cable.

Now, new estimates taken from up at the surface suggest we’d need more than twice as much slack to get all the way to the bottom of this profound underwater cavern.

Using recent geophysical surveys of this national gem, known as the Hranice Abyss, scientists have traced the remarkable system of trench-like caves roughly a kilometre down (over half a mile down).

The findings are based on numerous types of geophysical data, including measurements with a gravimeter, in addition to checking electrical conductivity and natural geomagnetic fields in Earth’s subsurface.

Together, this can tell scientists the general locations of rocks, minerals, caverns, and valleys that lie below.

While it’s not a perfect mapping tool, it does suggest the Hranice Abyss extends much deeper than other estimates, like this one below:

Map of the world’s deepest underwater cave, the Hranice Abyss. We still don’t know how deep it really is… pic.twitter.com/ywbsNd0eAA

— Amazing Maps (@Amazing_Maps) October 6, 2016

It also calls the cave’s origin into question.

The world’s deepest flooded cave systems are notoriously difficult and dangerous to study directly, and even with the help of remotely operated vehicles, our reach is limited.

Research has shown that many of these caves contain temperate waters with acidic elements originating from a deep source. The thermal water in the Hranice Abyss, for instance, was found in a 2019 study to contain only five to 10 percent ‘modern water’.

This has led many to suppose these caves were formed from the bottom-up, with the acidic inner core of our planet slowly eating away at the limestone rock above. 

But this idea, known as hypogenic formation, doesn’t take into account each region’s specific geology or tectonic activity, and caves can be formed from the top down, too.

Underneath the Hranice Abyss, the authors of the new research have found evidence for a large-scale network of underground structures made from soluble rock, known as a karst system to geologists.

Conceptual geological cross section showing the Hranice Abyss and a large sedimentary basin called Carpathian Foredeep, in the mid-Miocene (above) and today (below). (Klanica et al., JGR Earth Surface, 2020)

Some of these underground caverns are filled with freshwater, and others with sediment, but the reappraisal suggests they were created by erosion from the top down – at least at first. 

In the mid-Miocene, the authors think water probably ran from the mountains into a basin, which gradually carved out caverns in the limestone through erosion. A former drainage system, found connected to the abyss, supports that theory.

“Subsequent sediment deposition (via sea‐level rise) and infill of these canyons caused spring outflows to become blocked and the cave systems to be flooded with fresh water,” the authors suggest.

Only after this would acidic water have welled up from below, the team thinks, bringing deep Earth isotopes up to the surface for us to find later. 

If this origin story is right, we might need to reassess other deep, flooded caves in Italy, South Africa, and Brazil, which we assumed were formed from the bottom up.

Nevertheless, the authors admit it’s very possible that the top-down erosion is somehow masking earlier bottom-up sculpting, making it appear as though the cave was created from above.

Geologist Francesco Sauro from the University of Bologna, who was not involved in the study, told Science it was worth re-examining other sites in light of these new and “impressive” estimates.

The study was published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface.

#Nature