Diabáz Cave

Diabáz Cave is one of the caves in Hungary that are specially protected. It is located in the area of Bükk National Park. It is the 10th deepest cave in Hungary and the 5th deepest in the Bükk region, as well as one of the most dangerous caves in the country. It was also the 5th deepest cave in Hungary.

Description

It opens in the Bánkúti backflow on the Bükk plateau, south of the tourist house at Bánkút, next to the road leading to the Csurgó forest house. Its entrance, built of tuff, is sealed with a large and heavy steel door. The middle formed in Triassic limestone, but in several places Triassic sandstone is the surrounding rock. The cave, divided into levels by shafts, deepens stepwise. It has a large side branch, the Szép branch.

Helictites are also found in it together with diverse and variously sized stalactites, stalagmites, flowstone flags and flowstone draperies. The different speleothems were formed in its inactive parts. A spring with a constant water flow emerges in it at a depth of 25 metres, therefore water always flows in the main passage. The cave stream is swollen by waters that sometimes enter from various occasional water inlets. In addition to the aforementioned, a water flow also enters the cave from the eastern end of the horizontal branch. The water that is absorbed deep underground reaches the surface at the Garadna spring.

One of the most dangerous caves in Hungary. The cave is protected by a steel door and is accessible through a 15‑metre long shaft equipped with well rings. The sealed cave can be visited only with permission from the Bükk National Park Directorate. Entrance requires the use of rope techniques, good climbing skills and good physical condition. Its vertical extent and depth are 161 metres. The Bükk region’s fifth deepest cave after Bányász Cave, István‑lápai Cave, Jáspis Cave and Fekete Cave.

Its name became Diabáz Cave because of a mistaken rock identification. The porphyrite was thought to be diabase because of its colour. The name of the Beautiful Branch of the cave was given by László Lukács and Péter Kovács. The cave appears in the literature as Bánkuti 2. sz. viznyelő barlang (Szenthe, Czakó 1976), Bánkuti 2. sz. víznyelőbarlang (Kordos 1984), Bánkuti-nyelő (Mészáros 1975), Bánkuti-visszafolyó (Várszegi, Kositzki 1964), Bánkuti visszafolyó (Kordos 1984), Bánkuti-viznyelő (Tóth 1964), Bánkúti 2. sz. víznyelő (Nyerges 2003), Bánkúti-visszafolyó (Hevesi 1977) and Diabáz Cave (Kordos 1977). In 1977 the cave was called Diabáz Cave for the first time in the literature.

Research History

In 1951 László Jakucs discovered with fluorescent watercolour that the waters flowing in the Bánkúti water sink emerge at the Garadna spring. Four days later the marked water appeared at the spring. In the 1950s the water sink’s funnel was excavated to a depth of 5 metres. In September 1963 the Karst and Cave Research Group of the Eger Teacher Training College excavated to a depth of eight metres, where a narrow passage prevented further progress. In 1963 the Miskolc Miners Cave Research Group again tried to enter the cave by following the path of the water that disappeared in the sink. Under the leadership of Sándor Várszegi they reached a depth of four metres by excavation and blasting.

In the spring of 1975 József Szabó (MEAFC) tried to make the water entrance passable, but without success. In July 1975 Péter Börcsök and István Szenthe also could not make progress. In the autumn of 1975, under the leadership of István Szenthe, Péter Börcsök and László Czakó, the MHSZ Debrecen Light Diving Club, the Budapest Spartacus TE and the MEAFC cave explorers succeeded in breaking through the blockage and from then on a practically free route led to the deepest point of the cave. Because of earlier bad experiences they did not open the water entrance at the previously explored site, but at a new location. László Lukács (FTSK) managed to find the Szép branch in the autumn of 1975. In 1975, in the works after entry, the MHSZ Debrecen Light Diving Club, Spartacus TE (Promontor SE), FTC and the VITUKI cave explorers took part. The first sketch longitudinal section map was produced in 1975, which was the work of the MHSZ Debrecen Light Diving Club. Since then, up to the present day, no significant new passage of considerable size has been found.

In 1976 the Diabáz Cave located in the 5300 (Bükk) cave catastrophe area became a cave of national significance. However, on the list of caves of national significance compiled on May 30, 1977, the cave is no longer included. In 1977 the MHSZ Debrecen Light Diving Club drew a site plan of Bánkút that marked the location of Diabáz Cave. The club members edited a floor plan map in 1977, which was made together with cooperating speleologists from Miskolc and Budapest. At that time the members created a map showing the location of the main branch of Diabáz Cave and the surrounding objects, as well as maps of the main branch and the Szép branch. From the 1977 special English‑language issue of Karst and Cave it is known that the 300 m long Diabáz Cave in the Bükk Mountains was the 38th longest cave in Hungary on December 31, 1975. According to the status on December 31, 1977 (MKBT Invitation May 1978), the Diabáz Cave in the Bükk Mountains, about 153 m deep and about 533 m long, was the 5th deepest and the 25th longest cave in the country.