Harmanecká jaskyna – Harmanecka cave EarthCache
Harmanecká jaskyna – Harmanecka cave
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It is located in the valley of Harmanec to the northwest from Banská Bystrica, in the southern part of the Great Fatra Mts. Cave entrance is on the northern side of Kotolnica.
History
The entrance space of the cave called Izbica, which offered shelter in bad weather to woodcutters and forest workers, was known to local people since long ago. The later discovery of the cave in 1932 wasn’t a result of a chance but a goal-directed heavy work of 18 years old Michal Bacúrik, who after 14 day dug out a narrow opening – now the Discoverer’s Passage and entered the snow white hall later called the Discoverer’s Dome. It is interesting that the discoverer was fined for this because he didn’t have the permission from the town forest office to enter their forests. The town council in Banská Bystrica closed the cave in 1933 because of flowstone fill protection. The Dome of Pagodas, Riverbed and Stray Dome were discovered by V. Kovalcík, O. Ondroušek in 1938. In 1944 during the World War II, the cave served as a shelter for local people.
The cave was measured in 1949 on the impulse of the caving group of the Club of Slovak Tourists and Skiers from Banská Bystrica, which was related to planned opening to the public. The cave was opened to the public for the first time in 1950.
Natural settings
It is formed in the Middle Triassic dark-grey Gutenstein limestones of the Choc Nappe along the tectonic faults with locally applied interbed surfaces.. Except for voluminous collapse spaces (Dome of Pagodas, Tall Dome, Stray Dome and others), there are horizontal and inclined passages with irregular oval shapes, however without typical signs of underground river modelling. We can also find distinct collapses and spiral abysses.
The initial cave spaces were formed by corrosion of slowly flowing and almost stagnant water, when they were completely flooded. Mixed corrosion and slow convection flow of water formed irregular sponge-like and oval cupola hollows. After the decline of water-table, which is witnessed by here and there preserved level notches, the cave spaces were flooded only partially. The time of forming the primary underground spaces is probably related to the ancient inflow of waters from the edge part of the Kremické Hills (extraneous sediments floated from non-karst area were found in the cave) and to forming of surrounding planation surface in the Tertiary Period. Later on, several distinct collapses of roofs and walls occurred in many places of the cave, by which the original oval shapes were destructed and remodelled, by which debris fields, debris cones, mounds and bulwarks were formed. Except for collapses, also percolating atmospheric waters contributed to further forming of the underground spaces. Narrow fissure passages and chimneys were formed by their corrosive activity in the cave.
The cave is known by abundant occurrence of white soft sinter – moonmilk. From among the sinter fills, mainly the mighty pagoda stalagmites, wall flowstone waterfalls and draperies catch your attention. There are two pagodas twelve meters high with three meters in diameter in the Great Dome.
The cave belongs among the most important localities of bats occurrence in Slovakia.
To log your cache you need to:
1. Attach a photo of you in front of the cave entrance to the log.
Send me an email through my profile with answers to these questions:
2, Length with vertical span of cave ?
3, Temperature in the cave ?
4. In what altitude above sea level si the entrance to the cave?
5. Write name bat which lives there.
You cannot log this cache before confirm correct answer by owner. If you need to log your visit immediately, please use „Write note“ which you can later change to „Found it“ status.
Access to cave
You will get to the Harmanecká Cave from the parking place at the state road Harmanec - Turcianske Teplice to the northwest from Banská Bystrica. Cave entrance, which is 260 m above is accessible by serpentine path. The ascent lasts 40 min. There are educational boards installed along the path.
Prefix Lookup Name Coordinate
PK PARK Parking (Parking Area)
N 48° 49.120 E 019° 02.330
Note: Car access to cave:
• from Banská Bystrica direction Turcianske Teplice, Martin through Harmanec – 13 km
• from Ružomberok direction Banská Bystrica through Donovaly, Staré Hory, Harmanec – 50 km
• from Turcianske Teplice through Šturec direction Banská Bystrica – 20 km
Podmienky zalogovania cache: 1. Prilozit k logu fotografiu pred vchodom do jaskyne. Poslat mi email s odpovedami na nasledujuce otazky: 2. Dlžka jaskyne a vertikálne rozpätie? 3. Teplota v jaskyni? 4. V akej nadmorskej výške je vchod do jaskyne? 5. Napíš meno jedného tunajšieho netopiera.
Additional Hints
(No hints available.)