Kopaszgally-oldal No. 2 Sinkhole Cave

The Kopaszgally-oldal No. 2 water-absorbing cave is one of the highly protected caves of Hungary. It is located in the area of 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 one of the eight highly protected caves of Bódvaszilas.

Description

The entrance of the cave is located on the D side of the mountain, at the edge of the Upper Hill plateau. It opens about 100 m from the Pócsakői water absorber, at the bottom of a water-absorbing pit, and the entrance of the Kopaszgally-oldal No. 2 water-absorbing cave is concreted and closed with a iron door, relatively narrow. Arriving from Bódvaszilas, one must turn left from the section number 24 of the National Blue Trail to reach the cave. It formed in Upper Triassic and Middle Triassic limestone. In some places, breccia fillings can also be observed. Unlike the potholes typical of the Upper Hill plateau, it is a periodically active water-absorbing cave, like the Meteor Cave and the Pócsakői water absorber. The Kopaszgally-oldal No. 2 water-absorbing cave is currently fissure-like. Its character has changed because of passage expansions carried out during exploration.

Nyerges Attila wrote about it in 2003 that morphologically it has four sections. There is an entrance collapse zone, a horizontal zone, an upper silt zone and a fourth zone. The part richest in formations is the Szép-ág. Here is a large white‑capped stalactite flow covering a great surface, many hanging stalactites and a couple of large animal‑shaped stalactites, helictites and a developed, sharply pointed calcite‑lined terraced pool. Its passages contain various dissolution forms, sinters, wave shells and small meanders.

The disappearing waters in the cave appear at the Vecsem spring, which is located 2200 meters and 225 meters lower. Some bats regularly use a few chambers as resting places. A piece of Permian period decayed wood also emerged from it. Its horizontal extent is 130 meters. Visiting is possible with the permission of the Aggtelek National Park Directorate and the use of electric lighting. Basic caving equipment is sufficient for exploration, because iron ladders have been placed in its shafts. Movement is made difficult by the high carbon dioxide content of the air at its poorly ventilated deep point. In addition to the usual reasons for closure, it was necessary because of the frequent occurrence of high carbon dioxide air in the lower part and to protect the snow‑white speleothems of the Szép‑ág formation.

One of the eight caves of Bódvaszilas that are specially protected, the other seven are Almási‑zsomboly, Frank cave, Kopasz‑vigasz cave, Meteor cave, Szabó‑pallagi‑zsomboly, Széki‑zsomboly and Vecsembükki‑zsomboly.

The cave occurs in the literature as 404 cave (Regős 1977), 404 water‑draining cave (Kordos 1984), cave No. 404 (Kordos 1977), Kopaszgally cave (Sohár 1969), Kopaszgally‑side 2nd water‑draining (MKBT Invitation 1977), Kopaszgally‑side 2nd water‑draining cave (Vlk 2019), Kopaszgally‑side 404 water‑draining (Vlk 2019), Kopaszgaly‑side 2nd water‑draining (Gonda 1982), Kopaszgaly‑side 2nd water‑draining (Kordos 1984), Kopaszgaly‑side 2nd water‑draining cave (Takácsné 1987), Kopaszgaly‑side 404 water‑draining (Nyerges 2003) and Kopaszgally‑side No. 2 Cave (Takácsné, Eszterhás, Juhász, Kraus 1989).

Research history

In 1964, during his hydrological investigations with dye tracing, Dénes György determined that the waters absorbed in the water‑draining probably emerge at the Vecsem spring. In June 1969 he began dismantling the water‑draining with the Toldy Ferenc Gymnasium Cave Research Group, and in 1969 the group’s speleologists entered the cave by making the water‑draining’s water‑absorption path passable. At that time it was about 200 m long and about 60 m deep. In 1969 the VITUKI speleologists probably performed a water‑yield measurement in this cave. Afterwards, mainly the Red Meteor TE speleologists were involved in exploring further passages.

In 1976 members of the Vörös Meteor TE Tektonik Cave Exploration Group, the Promontor SE Cave Exploration Group, the FTSK Cave Exploration Department and the MHSZ Debrecen Light Diving Club discovered new passages in the Kopaszgally-side No. 2 water-well cave. László Lukács also participated in the cave research at that time. The Szép branch and the Piros coil were discovered then. In 1976 the cave’s length‑section map and cross‑section maps were completed. The manuscript completed in 1976, written by Károly Bertalan, mentions that the Kopaszgally-side No. 2 water-well (cave No. 404) is located on Alsó Hill in Bódvaszilas. The entrance of the Kopaszgally-side No. 2 water-well cave is 100 m from the Pócsakői water-well towards Ny. The part of the manuscript describing the Kopaszgally-side No. 2 water-well cave was written based on one manuscript. In 1976 the cave became of national significance in the 5400 (Aggtelek Karst) cave cadastral area, known as the Bódvaszilas cave Kopaszgally-side No. 2 water-well /404/.

After the correction of cave names listed in the national significance caves list compiled in 1976, the cave located in the Aggtelek Karst, Bódvaszilá, named Kopaszgally-oldali 2. sz.-viznyelő, appears on the national significance caves list compiled on May 30, 1977. By 1977 the depth of the cave had almost reached 100 m. According to the compilation published in 1977 in *Karszt és Barlang*, on December 31 1977 Hungary’s 38th longest cave was the cave situated in the Aggtelek Karst, 350 m long on December 31 1977, with an unknown length of 404 sz. in 1976 and 1975. According to the compilation, on December 31 1977 Hungary’s 16th deepest cave was the cave situated in the Aggtelek Karst, 110 m deep on December 31 1977, with an unknown depth of 404 sz. in 1976 and 1975. The 15th deepest cave (Kis‑kőháti‑zsomboly) was also 110 m deep. This compilation is more up‑to‑date than the list published in the May 1978 MKBT Invitation.