Baradla Short Lower Cave

The Baradla Short Lower Cave is the lower cave level of the Baradla–Domica cave system. It is among the specially protected caves of Hungary. It is located in the Aggtelek National Park. Together with the other caves of the Aggtelek Karst and the Slovak Karst, the cave is part of the World Heritage. It is the 9th longest cave of the Aggtelek Karst.

Description

Its entrance opens from a dam built at the edge of Jósvafő, at the Jósva spring, at an altitude of 218.4 metres above sea level. Its vertical extent is 20 metres. It formed in lower Triassic Anisian Gutenstein limestone, and in some places in dolomitic limestone.

The main branch of Baradla Cave no longer has a permanent water flow; the karst water from the system’s catchment area is carried by the lower caves to their springs located at the border of Jósvafő. Baradla Cave has two lower caves that are hydrologically independent of each other. The Baradla Short Lower Cave, known over a length of 1000 metres, and the Baradla Long Lower Cave, known over a length of 235 metres but extending further underground, all the way to Domica.

The two caves were long thought to be one, because their water emerges at a single point, the Jósva spring at Jósvafő. The distinctness of the springs has been known only since 1955, when a huge flood washed away the spring area. The source of the Baradla Short Lower Cave is the Táró spring, which now reaches the surface through an artificially driven dam, separate from the Baradla Long Lower Cave’s Pool spring, also called the Lake spring. The Táró spring’s discharge averages 0.25 m³/s and can reach 100 m³/s during floods. Its temperature averages 9.8 °C. A permit from the Aggtelek National Park Directorate is required for visitation.

The Aggtelek Karst's 9th longest cave, the Baradla Cave, the Peace Cave, the Freedom Cave, the Vass Imre Cave, the Meteor Cave, the Kossuth Cave, the Danca Cave and the Szabó-pallagi-zsomboly.

The cave occurs in the literature under the names Alsó-Baradla (Bertalan 1976), Alsóbarlang (Jakucs 1957), Alsó-barlang (Jakucs 1957), Baradla Alsó-barlang (Takácsné 1987), Baradla-Alsóbarlang (Horváth 1976), Baradla-Alsó-barlang (Bertalan 1976), Baradla Alsó Cave (Takácsné, Eszterhás, Juhász, Kraus 1989), Baradla-Alsó Cave (Kordos 1977), Baradla Lower Cave (Kordos 1977), Rövid-Alsó-barlang (Takácsné, Juhász, Kraus 1989) and Short-Lower Cave (Takácsné, Eszterhás, Juhász, Kraus 1989). In 2003 the cave was for the first time called Baradla Rövid-Alsó-barlang in the literature.

Formation

In the late stage of cave development the Baradla Cave became inactive over time, losing its original cave stream. The former water flow of the cave began to develop a lower passage system for itself. Water seeping through cracks in the rock that forms the cave floor dissolved new passages, and besides the seepage, cave water sinks also formed, capable of receiving large amounts of water. In the main branch of the Baradla Cave water flow appears only during especially large floods, but in almost every case it leaves at the latest through the huge water sink beneath the Giant Hall into the Baradla Short-Lower Cave. Water also reaches the Baradla Short-Lower Cave from the sinks located north of the Vörös-tó branch and from water seeping from that area.

Fauna

The cave's constantly water‑covered mud hosts the earthworm species Allolobophora mozsariorum Zicsi, found and described only here. Gábor Mozsáry first observed the worms living in the mud of underwater passages in 1972, when further siphons were traversed and new cave sections were discovered, then he consulted András Zicsi with the collected specimens, who identified it as a new species. Until then, water‑dwelling worms were known that burrow their anterior parts into mud and move with their posterior parts like a funnel, thus securing fresh water needed for their metabolism (Allolobophora dubiosa), but a similar lifestyle variant had never been found in caves.

Research History

Baradla Cave’s greatest researcher Imre Vass also hypothesized the existence of the lower cave (1831), because the cave’s exit and the Jósva spring are located very close to each other. The researchers of the time also tried to reach it by enlarging the larger water sinks of the cave, but were unsuccessful. In 1954 László Jakucs attempted to enter the lower cave, then still without significant success. With the help of a shaft they managed to enter the cave, but there deep water siphons immediately blocked the way. Only later it turned out that they had actually entered the Baradla Long-Lower Cave.

The accident on 6 August 1955 rushed to the researchers’ aid, when a huge flood ran through Baradla Cave. Water breaking out from the Jósva spring ripped out the road’s stone slab above the spring and created a huge spring crater, revealing, to the researchers’ surprise, the locations of two springs a few meters apart. Based on the different water temperatures of the two springs it was suggested that Baradla Cave does not have one but two separate lower caves, but this was only proven in 1970 by water‑painting experiments by István Szenthe.

In 1957 a tunnel was driven along the road leading to the Tengerszem hostel up to the walkable part of the Baradla Short‑Lower Cave, so that future floods could no longer wash away the mountain slope and the road. In the same year László Jakucs began his examination of the cave through this passage, where a series of water‑filled siphons was found. First they tried to get through the siphons using explosions, then with divers, but they always encountered new ones ahead. In 1969 they again attempted to enlarge the giant terminal sink, and although the team led by István Szenthe reached the lower‑cave level at a depth of 35 metres, a siphon blocked further progress.