Csörgő Spring Cave

Csörgő Spring Cave 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 has been part of the World Heritage since 1995. It is a highly protected water extraction area. It provides drinking water supply for Szögliget and Perkupa. It is one of the three specially protected caves of Szögliget.

Description

On the northeastern edge of Szögliget, behind the Catholic church, on a hillside, above the Csörgő spring, on Táncsics Mihály Street, within the waterworks protection area, next to the fenced waterworks building, the artificial, slope‑oriented, longitudinal, arched entrance, closed by a gate, one and a half meters wide and 2.5 meters high, is in a rock wall. The location of the cave entrance is marked on some tourist maps. The entrance part of the cave is a vestibule. The cave was formed approximately at the boundary of the middle Triassic Steinalm and Wetterstein limestone due to outflowing water and dissolution below the karst water level. The cave is the flood spring source of the Csörgő spring. It is a highly protected water extraction area. It provides drinking water supply for Szögliget and Perkupa. Within Perkupa, the Jósvafő‑Aggtelek railway station is also supplied with drinking water by the spring.

Simple in shape. Sloping and stepped slope ratio. 70 m horizontal extent. Stalactite flow and stalactite poisoning can be observed in it. Settling pool, lighting, stairs, walkway, bridge made of iron grating, water pipe, dam, sliding lock, three pumps and a water flow meter are present in the cave, which has been heavily modified for water extraction. The terminal parts have remained in natural condition. With the permission of the Aggtelek National Park Directorate, based on prior consultation and for research purposes, the cave passage can be visited with basic equipment and the cave opens onto private land. It may be impassable due to high water. The North Hungarian Regional Waterworks manages and utilizes it.

The upper hydrological system of the source cave is proven by water level marking to belong to the Bába Valley 3rd water-absorbing cave, the Hangyás sink, the Frank cave, the Acskó spring and the Acskóréti sink. According to László Sásdi, the formation of the Csörgő spring system began at the beginning of the Pleistocene and since then a drop in spring level, i.e., karst water level, can be observed.

According to accounts, the previously intensively explored cave was notorious for its very muddy, narrow and wet passages. Visiting the not very long cave took several hours. Of the three caves that are specially protected by the Szögliget, one is this cave, the other two are the Csempész cave and the Pérecs sink.

The cave occurs in the literature as Árvizi-forrásszáj (Házi 1978), Csörgő árvizi-forrásbarlang (Házi 1977), Csörgő-árvizi forrásbarlang (Házi 1977), Csörgő árvizi forrásszáj (Dénes 1961), Csörgő-árvízi-forrásbarlang (Székely 1979), Csörgő-barlang (Székely 1980), Csörgő-forrás barlang (Bertalan 1976), Csörgő-forrás barlangja (Házi 1980), Csörgő-forrás felső időszakos árvizi forrás (Kőrösi 1968), Csörgő-forrás kürtője (Dénes 1968), Csörgő-forrás ősi szája (Dénes 1966), Csörgő-forrás rendszere (Házi 1977), Csörgő-forrás rendszerének felső árvizi szája (Házi 1976), Csörgő-lyuk (Dénes 1966) – this name variation is also the name of the Csörgő-lyuk –, Csőrgő-forrás barlangja (Vlk 2019) and Szögligeti Árvizi-forrásbarlang (Házi 1978). In 1967 the cave was first called Csörgő-forrásbarlang in the literature (Dénes 1967).

Research history

In the summer of 1958 the Budapest Red Meteor Cave Exploration Group began to explore. In the cavity at the old, blocked outlet of the Csörgő spring they were able to advance a few meters by digging. Between 6 and 9 April 1961 the Red Meteor TE Cave Exploration Department carried out maintenance work at the flood spring. The guidebook Aggtelek and its surroundings published in 1961 states that about 50 metres above the spring called Csörgő, from the side of a rock wall, a large amount of water erupts every 10–20 years and at this flood spring the Red Meteor Cave Exploration Group established a workplace.

According to the study by György Dénes published in the 1963 Karst and Cave Research Bulletin, the Papkerti spring's flood spring is the Csörgő and the Csörgő also has a very rarely operating flood spring. In the melt of March 1964, the water marked with salt from the Hangyás-sink was detectable from the Acskó spring and flowed from the spring into the water sink located in the Acskó field, and the salt‑marked water appeared in the Csörgő spring. This proved that the Papkerti spring and the flood spring mouths are hydrographically connected with the Acskó‑field sink and it was also possible that they were connected with the Szúnyogos sink. In the summer of 1964 the group members continued the exploration of the Csörgő spring flood spring.

In 1965, under the leadership of István Révész, the cave was cleared. At the same time Péter Simsa and his colleagues surveyed the cave passages and prepared a draft cave map. In 1966, inspection trips and maintenance works were carried out in it. In the summer of 1967 the VM Titan Cave Research Group cleared the upper, periodic flood spring of the Csörgő spring, but without success. In 1968 members of the Titan Cave Research Group deepened a shaft behind the Csörgő spring, at the middle, periodic flood spring of the source, reaching the fractured stalactite and the spring water. The excavated shaft was secured with a shoring and covered.

On 22 February 1969, the hydrogeological connection with the Acskó spring and indirectly with the Csörgő spring was detected in the Bába Valley cave number 3 water sink using sodium fluorescein. With this investigation the catchment area of the Csörgő spring, determinable by water pressure marking, increased greatly. In March 1969, using fluorescein, the hydrographic connection between the Acskó‑field sink and the Csörgő spring group was confirmed.