expoweb/years/2004/76why.html

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<title>Why Eislufth&ouml;hle?</title>
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<h1 align="center">Why Eislufth&ouml;hle?</h1>
<p>
This shows the caves in the area with 4 additional fake vertical shafts
indicating the entrance locations and depths of (from left to right)
<a href="/1623/97.htm">97 (Schneewindschacht)</a>,
<a href="/1623/76/76.html">76 (Eislufth&ouml;hle)</a>,
<a href="/1623/107.htm">107 (Gemsh&ouml;hle)</a>, and
<a href="/1623/82.htm">82 (Br&auml;uningh&ouml;hle)</a>:
</p>
<img src="http://www.survex.com/~olly/eisluftdepth.png" />
<br />
<a href="http://www.survex.com/~olly/all.3d">[Download 3d file of this]</a>
<p>76 is striking for going notably deeper (in absolute terms) than anything
else apart from the lower reaches of Stellerweg.
</p>
<p>The caves under the <a href="/1623/">Schwarzmooskogel ridge</a>
show definite levels of major horizontal phreatic development. These can be
seen to some extent in the screenshot above, but they're clearer if you play
around with the survey in Aven. The Austrian cavers tell us that corresponding
phreatic levels are seen in many caves all over the surrounding parts of
Austria, so there are good reasons to think they're not a phenomenon only
associated with this ridge.
</p>
<p>These levels haven't been observed so clearly in the caves out under the
<a href="/1623/">Loser Augst-Eck plateau</a> subarea, but Tony Malcolm
<a href="../1981/tmelev.htm">noted signs of them</a>. Exploration in
the early years of CUCC in Austria followed a pattern of "drop pitches
to a sump or other conclusion, derig, try another entrance" - the major
horizontal levels under the ridge were mostly found much more recently
once we got a bit more thorough.
</p>
<p>A particularly notable feature of a number of the caves in this area
is strong outward draughts (in Summer at any rate). The very names of
the caves indicate this: Eislufth&ouml;hle is <i>"Ice air cave"</i> or
<i>"Ice breath cave"</i>, while Schneewindschacht is <i>"Snow wind shaft"</i>.
99 is noted as having a <i>"strong draught"</i>.
</p>
<p>Wildly hypothesising for a moment, this might indicate air coming through
from higher entrances, in the same way that the strongly draughting entrances
on the East side of the Schwarzmooskogel ridge are most likely due to airflow
through from the higher entrances of
<a href="/1623/161/161.html">Kaninchenh&ouml;hle</a> and
<a href="/1623/161/136.htm">Steinschlagschacht</a>. It would be very
interesting if there was significant horizontal development linking some of
the caves under the plateau with those under the ridge!
</p>
<p>Scanned surveys (these are missing from the website - I need to clean
them up and stick them in, but for now, here they are):</p>
<ul>
<li /><a href="http://www.survex.com/~olly/76upper.png">Upper half of 76</a>
<li /><a href="http://www.survex.com/~olly/76lower.png">Lower half of 76</a>
<li /><a href="http://www.survex.com/~olly/99sketch.png">3D sketch of 99</a>
</ul>
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