Cserszegtomaj Wellcave

The Cserszegtomaj Wellcave is one of the specially protected caves of Hungary. Its peculiarity is its small horizontal extension relative to its size and, consequently, its complex passage system. The morphological picture of its tangled labyrinth is therefore unique in our country. It is the longest cave of the Keszthely Riviera. It is one of the two specially protected caves of Cserszegtomaj, the other being the Acheron Wellcave.

Description

In the Balaton Uplands National Park, within the inner area of Cserszegtomaj, from the 64 m deep well of the Cserszegtomaj cemetery, in the concrete‑lined wall of the well, it opens 50 m deep from the well mouth. It was formed at the boundary of Upper Triassic main dolomite and Miocene sandstone by the action of warm and hot karst waters. Because a nearly horizontal rock layer boundary developed, the cave can be considered horizontal. The vertical difference between its highest and deepest points is 12 m. The walls of the flat, small‑cross‑section cavity system are formed by sandstone that is heavily impregnated with hard quartzite. At its main entrance, negative impressions of the dissolved forms of the old dolomite surface and cell‑cassette‑structured rock chips can be seen.

Among its mineral deposits the most common are various gypsum formations and red, blue and black hematite, as well as hydrohematite and manganese coatings on the walls. Such are found in the Blue‑Red branch. 5–10 cm limonite dropstones, trace fossils of Pannonian ferns and other fossils, as well as fibrous gypsum can also be observed in it. Hematite and limonite coatings appear in spots 2–25 cm in diameter.

The temperature of its air is higher than the Hungarian cave average, around 12.5–12.8 °C. Its passages are dry even with 100 % relative humidity. The carbon‑dioxide concentration is also high, reaching up to 4.1 %. This was measured in the farthest part of the Southern section. It can ventilate only through the entrance shaft and therefore the carbon‑dioxide concentration increases with distance from the entrance. The cavity system is currently dry because of the lowering of the karst water level, but measurements indicate that in the 1970s the DK passages could still have been underwater. In many places the floor is covered with dolomite flour and limestone powder. The cave is currently in a deteriorating state.

Although the network‑arranged cave is more than 3300 m long, the distance between its farthest points is only 146 m in the K–Ny direction and 125 m in the E–D direction. Its horizontal extent is therefore small. One can mostly move on all fours in its complex labyrinth. It has many Gothic‑style features, such as columns and vaults. In 1931 a German university professor who walked there considered it artificial, an ancient casemate. The crawling passages are divided by larger chambers 10–15 m in diameter and 2–3 m high. It is safely walkable, but even with a map it is difficult to orient oneself. Because of locally high carbon‑dioxide concentrations, an electric lamp must be used for viewing. To visit the closed cave, permission from the Balaton‑Highland National Park Directorate and a caving practice are required.

One of its chambers, the largest, was named after Szabó Pál Zoltán, where a memorial plaque was placed in his honor. In 1977 it was first called Cserszegtomaji-kútbarlang in the literature of the cave. The cave appears in the literature as Barlangos kut üregrendszere (Eszterhás 1984), Barlangoskút ürege (Neidenbach, Pusztay 2005), Barlangoskút üregrendszere (Bertalan 1976), Cserszegtomaji-kutbarlang (Bertalan, Schőnviszky 1976), Cserszegtomaji kútbarlang (Bertalan 1976), Cserszegtomaj's Well Cave (Kordos 1977), Cserszegtomaj Well-cave (Takácsné, Eszterhás, Juhász, Kraus 1989), Cserszegtomaj Well Cave (Takácsné, Eszterhás, Juhász, Kraus 1989), Dornyai Béla-barlang (Eszterhás 1984), Dornyay-barlang (Bertalan 1976), Kút-barlang (Szeghalmy 1937), Kút barlang (Bertalan 1976), Kútbarlang (Margittay 1942) and Tomaji kútbarlang (Bertalan 1976).

Research history

In 1930, by accident, the cave was discovered during well digging. It was first mentioned in a manuscript written by Rozlozsnyik Pál. According to the manuscript written in 1931, the cave was viewable up to a length of 150 m.

The book published in 1937 and written by Gyula Szeghalmy mentions the very interesting discovery of the Well Cave located near Keszthely, in the vicinity of the Saint Anne Chapel of Tomaj, also because of the circumstances of its discovery. The cave was found in the well shaft dug to a depth of 54 m in the Pannonian layer. According to the investigations of chief geologist Pál Rozlozsnik in 1931, the cave was formed at the contact of Pannonian quartzite and the underlying Upper Triassic dolomite, by karst water situated at a level higher than the present one. Two passages are found at the cave entrance that lead down into the cave. One leads to a chamber that is 10 m long, 3–5 m wide and 1 m high. The other starts with a low corridor from which chamber‑shaped cavities open, from which further corridors branch, but these cannot be entered.

In 1946 Ferenc Szentes conducted scientific research in it. In 1947 the first survey of the cave took place, carried out by Ferenc Szentes. In 1951 Sándor Leél-Őssy scientifically investigated the cave. In 1965–1966 the VMTE Toldy Cave Research Group increased the cave length by almost 800 m by uncovering new sections. The basic plan map of the Cserszegtomaj Well-cave was published in the 1965 issue of Karst and Cave. The map sketch, showing the east direction, was prepared in 1965 by the Toldy Ferenc High School Cave Research Group of Budapest. On the map sketch the front part of the cave surveyed by Ferenc Szentes, the sections surveyed in 1965, the sections roughly drawn in 1965 based on a few directional measurements and estimated distance values, and the area where discovered passages exist (but whose locations cannot even be roughly drawn without data) are distinguished from each other. In 1976 the Cserszegtomaj Well-cave in the 4400 (Bakony) cave inventory area became a cave of national significance.