Meteor Cave

Meteor Cave has been one of Hungary's specially protected caves since 1982. When it was explored in 1961, it was the deepest cave in Hungary. It is the region's most significant, periodically active water sink. 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 the fifth longest cave of the Aggtelek Karst. It is one of the eight specially protected caves of Bódvaszilas.

Description

It opens at the base of the cliff face of Lower Hill facing the Bódva valley in the Aggtelek National Park, on the Aggtelek Karst. In the Meteor Cave, the enclosing rock of some debris-filled passages is middle Triassic Wetterstein limestone and upper Triassic Hallstatt limestone. In several places a perm evaporite assemblage can be found. Its horizontal extent is 167 m. The sealed cave can be visited with permission from the Aggtelek National Park Directorate.

It is the 5th longest cave of the Aggtelek Karst, after Baradla Cave, Peace Cave, Freedom Cave and Vass Imre Cave. It is one of the eight specially protected caves of Bódvaszilas; the other seven are Almási‑zsomboly, Frank Cave, the 2nd water‑sink cave on the Kopaszgally side, Kopasz‑vigasz Cave, Szabó‑pallagi‑zsomboly, Széki‑zsomboly and Vecsembük‑zsomboly.

The cave also appears in the literature under the names cave discovered through the Kisvizestöbri water sink (Bertalan 1976), Kisvizes‑töbri water sink (Nyerges 2003), Kis‑vizes‑töbri water‑sink cave (Kordos 1984), Meteor Cave (Kordos 1977), Red Meteor Cave (Nyerges 2003) and Red Meteor dripstone cave (Bertalan 1976).

Biology

Meteor Cave belongs to the caves with a significant amount of food resources because of its wide water‑sink passage and the soil conditions of the water‑sink area. In the biological studies of Daniel Bajomi, outstanding results were achieved both in the number of taxa recorded and in the number of individuals. The springtail species Arrhopalites hungaricus intermedius occurs in particularly large numbers. Bajomi identified two new crustacean species in the waters: Elaphoidella pseudojeanneli and E. meteorit, as well as a new Hungarian Niphargus tatrensis. He found individuals of 90 animal species in the cave, of which 13 were true cave dwellers.

Research history

Members of the Red Meteor Cave Research Department began dismantling the Kis-vizes-töbri water well in 1961 under the direction of György Dénes. The first entry into Meteor Cave took place on August 6, 1961. First explorers: Gábor Frojimovics and György Kovács. Nothing hindered their way among the huge stone blocks until they reached a deep shaft. In the following days, together with members of the group working in the adjacent water well, they installed ladders in the vertical sections. With this aid they reached a gigantic chamber, which they named the Hall of Titans.

Further exploration of the approximately 0.5 km long discovered cave system continued between November 4 and November 9. On November 8, 1961, Maria Winkler fell into a 12 m shaft due to the release of a safety rope; although her injuries were serious, she recovered quickly. As a result of the work and the exploration, the system became the deepest cave in Hungary at that time. It was preceded by the 150 m deep Pénz-patak water-well cave. At that time the depth of Meteor Cave was thought to be 155 m. However, according to the latest surveys the cave is not as deep as previously believed. Reaching this result also involved a 120‑hour underground expedition in 1962. György Szentes conducted the geological study of the cave in the years following the entry. The cave reached a length of one kilometre in 1963.

In the study titled "On the Problems of Stalactite Formation" written by Attila Kósa and published in 1964, it is mentioned that there are no stalactites or stalagmites in the area above the cave. In the spring of 1964, using hydrological methods and fluorescent dye tracing, the connection between the cave and the Vécsem spring, located 1,790 m away and 237 m lower in elevation, was clarified. Since then, no passage large enough for a person to pass through has been found between them, despite attempts from both directions. On 3 November 1969, László Lakatos fell from a ledge in the lower part of the Hall of Titans (he suffered a severe skull injury and died in the hospital). In 1974, the Foton Cave Exploration Group produced a photographic documentation of the cave.

The manuscript completed in 1976 and written by Károly Bertalan states that the Meteor Cave (the cave discovered through the Small Water-filled Pit, Red Meteor stalactite cave) is located in the Lower Mountain, Bódvaszilas. In addition to the marked tourist trail from Bódvaszilas to the Szabó-pallet, the cave entrance is at 410 m above sea level in the Small Water-filled Pit (water sink) in the Szőlősfej garden. The stream cave is about 1 km long and 110–120 m deep. The cave contains many stalactites, helictites and gypsum crystals, and its water sink is very well developed. The part of the manuscript describing the cave was written based on four publications. In 1976, the Meteor Cave in Bódvaszilas, located in the 5400 (Aggtelek Karst) cave inventory area, became a cave of national significance.

After the correction of cave names in the list of caves of national significance compiled in 1976, the cave named Meteor Cave located in the Aggtelek Karst, Bódvaszilágy, appears on the list of caves of national significance compiled on May 30, 1977. From the publication The longest and deepest caves of Hungary (December 31, 1975) that appeared in the 1977 special issue of Karst and Cave in English, it is known that the Meteor Cave, situated in the Aggtelek Karst, 500 m long and 150 m deep, was Hungary’s 26th longest and 6th deepest cave on December 31 1975. The 27th longest cave (Háromkürtő‑zsomboly) is also 500 m long.