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Some Information about the deepest Caves known in Croatian Karst Area

The investigation of 3 caves explored more than 1, 000 meters in depth in the Dinaric karst area in Croatia, has been in progress for a considerable period of time. These are complex speleological features situated in the longest mountain range of the Dinara karst, i.e. at the Northern Velebit mountain range. In fact, these caves have been studied for over two decades now. The first one is a cave system of Lukina jama (Luke’s Cave) – Trojama cave, which has been investigated until the depth of 1, 421 meters (Jalžić 2007 ; Šmída 1993). Its total length is 3, 731 m and a new expedition will soon continue to investigate this pit through speleodiving in siphons. The second greatest cave by depth is Slovačka jama (Slovak Cave), 1, 320 meters in depth, with cave chanals measuring 5, 677 m in total length. The third greatest cave by depth is the Cave system of Velebita, reaching down to 1, 026 m in depth, with the chanal length of 3, 176 m (Bakšić 2006a, b). However, another 3 speleological sites, which can rightly be added to those deeper than 1, 000 m, have recently been discovered. These are three caverns that were discovered during construction of the Sveti Ilija Tunnel that passes through Mt. Biokovo, in the Dinaric karst area. These caverns undoubtedly point to the link with the ground surface, while the rock overburden above the tunnel in the zone where the caverns were discovered ranges from 1, 250 and 1, 350 m. Bats from the ground surface were found in the caverns and, according to measurements, they are situated in the depth from 200 and 300 m below the tunnel level. This would mean that the depth of these newly found caves ranges from 1, 450 and 1, 650 m, when observed from the ground surface. There are several hundreds of known caves in Biokovo, and the deepest ones discovered so far are Jama Mokre noge (Wet Feet Cave) 831 m in depth, and Jama Amfora (Amphora Cave) 788 m in depth (Bockovac 1999 ; Bakšić et al. 2002 ; Lacković et al. 2001). The investigations and surveys have been still in progress.

speleology; karst; tunneling; Croatia; Biokovo

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