Language: English, with trilingual abstract in English, German, and Russian
The Bol’shoj Tkhach massif in the NW Caucasus is a small but beautiful karst area of sub-alpine/ alpine characteristic. It comprises several, rather different caves. Visitable caves are mostly fossil, with large calcite crystals (decimetres range) or thick layers of moonmilk. Moreover, some vertical caves and siphons await future exploration and promise much unexplored continuation. Cave exploration in this area was done mainly by local speleologists. Additional research was done by various external speleologists and international expeditions. This report summarises the current knowledge about the karst area of the Bol’shoj Tkhach based on the work done so far by the several data sources available.
1 Introduction 11
2 General Notes 11
2.1 Geographical location 11
2.2 Morphology 12
2.3 Geology 14
2.4 Hydrology and climate 17
2.5 Flora 18
3 History of Speleological Research 18
4 Documentation 20
4.1 Geological and morphological features 20
4.2 Karst phenomena 22
4.2.1 Karren 22
4.2.2 Dolines and sinkholes 22
4.2.3 Ponors 24
4.2.4 Caves 24
4.2.5 Further karst phenomena 25
4.3 Caves as biotopes 25
4.4 Caves as archaeological archives 25
4.5 Caves as palaeoclimatic archives 25
5 Caves 31
5.1 Malyj Kotël 31
5.1.1 Spring cave 31
5.1.2 Nameless pit 31
5.2 Polyana Knyazheskaya 31
5.2.1 Kostyanaya Peshchera 31
5.2.2 Khod v Preispodnyuyu 35
5.2.3 Shelter cave 36
5.3 Bol’shoj Tkhach 36
5.3.1 Moonmilk cave 36
5.3.2 Medvezh’ya Peshchera 36
5.3.3 Larisochkina Peshchera 37
5.3.4 Kristal’naya Peshchera 38
5.3.5 Proval Peshchera 39
5.3.6 Peshchera Robinsona 39
5.3.7 Breaking fissures – potential deep vertical caves 44
5.4 Polyana Sokolova 44
5.4.1 Aromatnaya Peshchera 44
5.4.2 Further Sokolova caves 45
5.5 Khodz’ Kotël 45
5.5.1 Tunnel cave 45
5.5.2 Unexplored pit 45
5.5.3 Grot Izumrudnyj 45
5.5.4 Ambicukova Peshchera 49
5.5.5 Caves in the wall 53
5.5.6 Further caves without names 53
5.6 Polyana Baronova and Koryto 54
5.6.1 BP–1 54
5.6.2 BP–2, Lyudmilina Peshchera 54
5.6.3 BP–3 54
5.6.4 BP–4, Kamyshovaya Peshchera 54
5.6.5 BP–5 56
5.6.6 BP–6 56
5.6.7 BP–7, Ashurkovskaya Peshchera 56
5.6.8 BP–8 56
5.6.9 BP–9 56
5.6.10 BP–10 56
5.6.11 BP–11 59
5.6.12 BP–12 59
5.6.13 BP–13 59
5.6.14 BP–14 59
5.7 Malyj Tkhach 59
5.7.1 Fly cave 59
6 Conclusions 62
7 Final Note 62
Acknowledgements 62
References 63