Jaskinia Wielka Śnieżna ("great snowy cave") is a

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

cave A cave or cavern is a natural void in the ground, specifically a space large enough for a human to enter. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. The word ''cave'' can refer to smaller openings such as sea ...

system in Mount Małołączniak in the Western Tatra Mountains, of the

Carpathian Mountains The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians () are a range of mountains forming an arc across Central Europe. Roughly long, it is the third-longest European mountain range after the Urals at and the Scandinavian Mountains at . The range stretches ...

System, in southern Poland. The cave is within Tatra National Park. With the length of , and vertical range of , it is the longest, largest, and deepest cave in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

Morphology

Wielka Śnieżna has five entrances: * Jaskinia Śnieżna ("snowy cave") – – discovered in 1959 * Jaskinia nad Kotlinami ("cave over the kettles") – – discovered in 1966, connected to Śnieżna in 1968 * Jasny Awen ("light aven") – – first explored in 1959, connected to Wielka Śnieżna in 1978 * Jaskinia Wielka Litworowa ("great angelica cave") – – connected to Wielka Śnieżna in 1995 * Jaskinia Wilcza ("

wolf The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, and gray wolves, as popularly u ...

cave") – – discovered in 1996, connected to Wielka Śnieżna in 1999 They are connected by a complicated system of

shaft Shaft may refer to: Rotating machine elements * Shaft (mechanical engineering), a rotating machine element used to transmit power * Line shaft, a power transmission system * Drive shaft, a shaft for transferring torque * Axle, a shaft around whi ...

s and passages. Several of them contain underground trickles, waterfalls, pools, or siphons. The cave is drained by a

karst spring A karst spring or karstic spring is a spring (outflow of groundwater) that is part of a karst hydrological system. Description Because of their often conical or inverted bowl shape, karst springs are also known in German-speaking lands as a ''Top ...

known as Lodowe Źródło ("icy spring").

Exploration

Jaskinia Śnieżna was discovered in 1959 by cavers from

Zakopane Zakopane ( Podhale Goral: ''Zokopane'') is a town in the extreme south of Poland, in the southern part of the Podhale region at the foot of the Tatra Mountains. From 1975 to 1998, it was part of Nowy Sącz Voivodeship; since 1999, it has been par ...

. In 1960, it was explored to a depth of , which made it, at that time, the fourth-deepest cave in the world. In the subsequent years, the cave was intensively explored and connected with other caves. Exploration in the 1960s bottomed out at a sump or siphon, a U-shaped tunnel filled with water, at a depth of . In 1972, cavers using

scuba diving Scuba diving is a mode of underwater diving whereby divers use breathing equipment that is completely independent of a surface air supply. The name "scuba", an acronym for "Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus", was coined by Chris ...

gear were able to push past the sump for the first time. Their exploration pushed down to a depth of . Subsequent efforts have found the cave to be deep. Exploration of the cave is still ongoing, including attempts to connect the cave to Śnieżna Studnia, second-largest cave in Poland.

References

External links

Jaskinia Wielka Śnieżna
– with a map {{DEFAULTSORT:Jaskinia Wielka Sniezna Limestone caves Wild caves Caves of Poland Western Tatras Tatra County Landforms of Lesser Poland Voivodeship

Morphology

Exploration

See also

References

External links