Berliner Höhlenkundliche Berichte, Volume 25: The Karst of the Bol’shoj Tkhach (NW Caucasus, Russia)

The Bol’shoj Tkhach massif in the NW Caucasus is a small but beautiful karst area of sub-alpine/ alpine characteristic. It comprises several, rather different caves. Visitable caves are mostly fossil, with large calcite crystals (decimetres range) or thick layers of moonmilk. Moreover, some vertical caves and siphons await future exploration and promise much unexplored continuation. Cave exploration in this area was done mainly by local speleologists. Additional research was done by various external speleologists and international expeditions. This report summarises the current knowledge about the karst area of the Bol’shoj Tkhach based on the work done so far by the several data sources available.

1     Introduction     11
2     General Notes     11
2.1     Geographical location     11
2.2     Morphology     12
2.3     Geology     14
2.4     Hydrology and climate     17
2.5     Flora     18
3     History of Speleological Research     18
4     Documentation     20
4.1     Geological and morphological features     20
4.2     Karst phenomena     22
4.2.1     Karren     22
4.2.2     Dolines and sinkholes     22
4.2.3     Ponors     24
4.2.4     Caves     24
4.2.5     Further karst phenomena     25
4.3     Caves as biotopes     25
4.4     Caves as archaeological archives     25
4.5     Caves as palaeoclimatic archives     25
5     Caves     31
5.1     Malyj Kotël     31
5.1.1     Spring cave     31
5.1.2     Nameless pit     31
5.2     Polyana Knyazheskaya     31
5.2.1     Kostyanaya Peshchera     31
5.2.2     Khod v Preispodnyuyu     35
5.2.3     Shelter cave     36
5.3     Bol’shoj Tkhach     36
5.3.1     Moonmilk cave     36
5.3.2     Medvezh’ya Peshchera     36
5.3.3     Larisochkina Peshchera     37
5.3.4     Kristal’naya Peshchera     38
5.3.5     Proval Peshchera     39
5.3.6     Peshchera Robinsona     39
5.3.7     Breaking fissures – potential deep vertical caves     44
5.4     Polyana Sokolova     44
5.4.1     Aromatnaya Peshchera     44
5.4.2     Further Sokolova caves     45
5.5     Khodz’ Kotël     45
5.5.1     Tunnel cave     45
5.5.2     Unexplored pit     45
5.5.3     Grot Izumrudnyj     45
5.5.4     Ambicukova Peshchera     49
5.5.5     Caves in the wall     53
5.5.6     Further caves without names     53
5.6     Polyana Baronova and Koryto     54
5.6.1     BP–1     54
5.6.2     BP–2, Lyudmilina Peshchera     54
5.6.3     BP–3     54
5.6.4     BP–4, Kamyshovaya Peshchera     54
5.6.5     BP–5     56
5.6.6     BP–6     56
5.6.7     BP–7, Ashurkovskaya Peshchera     56
5.6.8     BP–8     56
5.6.9     BP–9     56
5.6.10     BP–10     56
5.6.11     BP–11     59
5.6.12     BP–12     59
5.6.13     BP–13     59
5.6.14     BP–14     59
5.7     Malyj Tkhach     59
5.7.1     Fly cave     59
6     Conclusions     62
7     Final Note     62

Acknowledgements     62
References     63