Keleti quarry No 17 Cave

The Keleti quarry No. 17 cave is one of the caves located in the Budai Landscape Protection Zone of the Danube–Ipoly National Park in the 3rd district of Budapest.

Description

It is on the lower mine level of the abandoned, two‑storey quarry of the eastern part of the Buda thermal karst, on the western, left‑hand side of the lower quarry yard of Mátyás Hill’s southeastern side. The Keleti quarry No. 17 cave is located near the Keleti quarry No. 8 cave. Its entrance is natural but was opened due to mining, irregular in shape and horizontally oriented. The water‑filled cave is nine metres long. Permission and basic caving equipment are required for visitation. It is easily walkable.

The name Keleti quarry No. 17 cave first appeared on the cave’s maps edited in 2005. In the literature the Keleti quarry No. 17 cave also occurs under the names 17th cave (Acheron 1993), 17th‑cave (Fehér, Fritz 1995), 17th fissure (Acheron 1993), BTI 17th‑cave (Fehér, Fritz 1995), DK quarry No. 17 cave (Acheron 1993), Keleti quarry 16–17th cave (Leél‑Őssy 1995), Keleti quarry 16‑17th cave (Leél‑Őssy 1995) and Pig cave (Fehér 1994).

Research history

Members of the Acheron Cave Research Department dealt in 1993 with the still promising stone quarry from a speleological perspective and investigated the already known caves in the quarry. They continued the deepening of the research shaft downward in the 17th fissure opened the previous year. However, after 1 m a very hard, cemented, unknown‑composition fill sealed the bottom of the shaft. Its further excavation was postponed. During the field work the survey of all cave indications in the quarry was completed. Zoltán Szabó surveyed the cave in 1993 and, using the survey data, drew the longitudinal‑section map of the Keleti quarry No. 17 cave. According to the 1993 departmental report the cave is 3 m long. The report contains a site plan showing the location of the quarry caves. The site plan marks the position of the Keleti quarry No. 17 cave. The manuscript includes the cave’s longitudinal‑section map.

Members of Katalin Fehér and her group in 1994, during the quarry survey, found an until then unknown cave, which is located on the southern side of the lower quarry yard, between the Eastern Quarry No. 8 cave and object 20. It was named Pig Cave. Further investigation is required for the cave formations. The cave can be opened at several points. It was planned that the next year they would again explore the cave. During the data collection for the digital speleotopographic map of the DK quarry (carried out in 1994 and 1995), the Pagony Cave Research Group measured the height twice at the null point of the cave entrance on the mine site.

In 1995 the speleotopographic map of the quarry was completed, showing the quarry at a scale of 1:1000. The map shows the location and floor plan of the cave. The cave is marked on the map with the designation DK/17. In the group's 1995 report it can be read that during the winter field work the group members examined the cave, which in the speleological institute's cadastre is cave number 17. The direction and formations of the cave are encouraging. Based on the orientation of the Eastern Quarry No. 8 cave and the Eastern Quarry No. 17 cave, it can be assumed that unknown cave sections are also present here. They began dismantling the hard fill that sealed the endpoint. The front about 3 m of the cave ceiling is composed of sheetlike calcite. In one place (above the entrance, where the cavity was exposed during mining) the thickness of the sheetlike calcite can be determined. At this spot it is 80 cm thick, vertically oriented and very loose.

The D‑i wall of the cave section formed beneath consists of broken limestone slabs separated from a steeply dipping, steep bedding plane. The layer behind the limestone slabs has been altered, observable in the fissures formed along the breaks. There are hot‑water dissolution forms on both walls and the ceiling of the cave, especially on the É‑i wall, where large spherical chambers have dissolved out. The floor level is compact, kaolinitic and leached rock flour into which heterogeneous large blocks are embedded. The heterogeneous material consists of sheetlike calcite pieces, stalactite bark fragments, broken and dissolved material of the host rock, and material from the altered rock fragments along the pre‑forming fracture. This material (during periods of submergence under hot water) was cemented with calcite. The floor material was removed at the beginning of the exploration work. A horizontal air gap, averaging 25–30 cm in height, extends from the entrance for about 2.5 m along the base of the D‑i wall. The air gap sloping toward the D‑i direction is visible to a depth of 0.5–1 m. The investigation began by lowering the floor at the air gap. After the removal of approximately 1 m³ of material, it was determined that the mine wall is approached by the gap. Therefore there is no chance of further passage development in this direction.