==> News from the Call Of The Abyss Project FromWorld Caving News http://www.zenas.gr/WCN => 30 Sep. 2006.In the period between August 19 - September 20, 2006 the Ukrainian Speleological Association (Ukr.S.A.) and the Ukrainian Institute of Speleology and Karstology (UISK) have conducted a regular expedition of the CA Project to Krubera (Voronja) Cave in Arabika Massif, Abkhazia.The expedition was led by Yury Kasjan and consisted of 16speleologists from Ukraine (from Kiev, Kharkov, Simferopol,Sevestopol, Poltava, Dnepropetrovsk and Kamenetz-Podilsky) and Russia (Moscow and Irkutsk). New explorations have been made in different parts of the cave, including the lowermost part, as well as various scientific observations.A major progress has been achieved in the Nekujbyshevskaja Branch (a distinct branch diverging from the main one at -250m and stretching to the north-west, the direction opposite to the overall trend of the main branch) by a team led by Kirylo Markovskoj. They continued exploring a new part, discovered and pushed to a boulder choke at -643m a year ago after breaking through the upper boulder choke at -490m. During this expedition the choke at -643m has been also broken and the branch pushed to -1004m, a point where the team run out of rope.The work in the lower part of the main branch can be summarized as follows:1) The lowermost part below the Kvitochka siphon at -1980m has been resurveyed. The depth of the post-siphon section (to the spit at the table of the Two Captains siphon, the one at the bottom) is measured to be 164m.2) The Two Captains siphon has been dove by Gennady Samokhin for 40m in length and 14m in depth, to the point where he was stopped by a squeeze. So, the new overall depth of Krubera Cave is now -2158m (see notes on survey data below). The absolute elevation of the lowermost eached point in the cave is about 100m a.s.l. but it still far (more than 12km) from the Black Sea coast where the discharge from the system occurs.3) Some new explorations have been made in the lower part of the cave: an ascending side ... http://www.zenas.gr/site/home/eng_detail.asp?iData=5013 --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ SpeleoUnion http://groups.google.ru/group/SpeleoUnion -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
