UBSS Proceedings 19(3)
Content Summary
Shute Shelve Cavern was discovered by members of the Axbridge Caving Group in March 1992. The cave was explored to a length of 262 m and a depth of 56 m. The first part of the cave had been entered by ochre miners during the early part of this century and may be the ‘Lost Cave of Axbridge’ rumoured to exist somewhere on Axbridge Hill. The cave is a single section of a large fossil phreatic loop which probably drained water from a catchment area in the Lox Yeo valley to the north to an ancient resurgence somewhere near Axbridge. Uranium series dating indicates the speleothems in the cave are older than 350,000 years.
Authors: Mullan, G.J.
Pen Park Hole was reopened in February 1992. This allowed new studies to be made of its geomorphology and in addition further researches into its history were conducted. It is concluded that the cave was first discovered in 1669 and first explored in that year. It has never been commercially mined, although several investigations were made by miners. The cave is considered to be of hydrothermal origin and to be much older than the nearby Mendip caves, probably being active in late Triassic, early Jurassic times.
Authors: Hobbs, S.L.
Schwyll Spring, located in an outcrop of Carboniferous Limestone in the Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales, has a catchment area estimated to be some 23 sq km based on water balance calculations. Water tracing indicates a component of the spring discharge is comprised of leakage from rivers which flow across the limestone outcrop. The actual volume of leakage could not be determined due to limited river discharge data, however, spring water chemistry suggest that influent river water does not comprise the major proportion of discharge from Schwyll. Geological information, combined with water tracing results and the water balance has been used to estimate a conjectural groundwater catchment for Schwyll Spring. Based on this area sources of pollution to the spring are assessed, which include those from dispersed recharge, sinking streams and influent rivers.
Authors: Barton, R.N.E.
In 1993 the Wye Valley Caves Project undertook an exploratory season of survey and trial excavations in a series of caves and rockshelters in the Wye Valley Gorge, near Monmouth. Initial finds have included material of Upper Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, Bronze Age and Romano-British dates. Future work is intended to include the development of new methods of small scale survey and to focus on the relationship between the functional use of caves and their location in the landscape.
A description is given of the new extension to Organhöhle which resulted from the 1992 expedition. The extensions comprised some 612 m of passage of a largely horizontal nature, covering a depth range of 127 m, with no overall increase in the depth of the cave. Descriptions are given of a further eleven sites noted during the expedition.
Authors: Self, C.A.
The Tomeens of Tulla comprise a series of short river caves located in a limestone inlier in the drift-covered lowlands of eastern County Clare. There are ten caves spanning a 500 m long section of a tributary of the Hell River. The caves are separated from each other by surface collapses which leave 30% of the river course open to the sky. Two stream oxbows and a complex of dry oxbows and side passages add to the overall length of the system.
Authors: Irwin, D.J.
Review - Hydrogeological Processes in Karst Terranes Ed. G. Günay, A.I. Johnson & W. Back
1993
Authors: Hobbs, S.L.